First Year Communications Classes: Applications of Critical Evaluation of Information in a Problem-Based Learning Framework

Abstract

Increasingly in an information-centric society, educational institutions must navigate ideological and pragmatic approaches to teaching how and where students find information used to make decisions. Engineering students’ information-seeking needs must also navigate a variety of competing sources of information—their professors, the library, their peers, family and friends, and industry professionals. Undergraduate engineering students are faced with learning both fundamental engineering concepts and soft skills such as information seeking and communication. One approach to teaching information seeking and communication could beProblem-Based Learning (PBL), which is a teaching method focused on having groups use open-ended realworld problems as a context for learning new concepts. This paper will provide a summary of the current scope of literature around PBL, implications for sustainability, andcontextualize it within the multidisciplinary context of library-focused interventions in first year communications courses.