New Tech Network (https://newtechnetwork.org/) is a leading organisation involved in driving PBL. They have a well articulated framework for Project Based Learning and draw attention to the way that not all projects are project based learning. Some of the distinctives include the need for projects to have authenticity, intellectual rigor and a demonstration of deeper learning. This is encapsulated well in the diagram below. 

Doing Projects vs. PBL

One of the best proponents of this approach to learning is the famous High Tech High (see https://www.hightechhigh.org/) who are pioneering this pedagogy and emphasise that PBL need not be expensive. They practice what they preach, sharing a number of resources from successful projects. 

Of course this leaves the question how how such a pedagogical approach 'works' in an e-learning ecology. This is a questions I am grappling with as I plan for an extended period of online learning due to disruption caused by COVID-19. While the College I work at has done a remarkable job in flipping learning from the classroom to the screen, the pedagogy involved with more complex approaches such as PBL still seems daunting. 

Reimann (2018) posits three strategies which help to facilitate group work online. These are:

1. scripting to reduce unequal participation: that is, assigning different roles and also empowering students to self-regulate through metrics showing cognitive and social group awareness
2. creating knowledge awareness: that is, forums to share learning in a meaningful way between the group to avoid the creation of knowledge silos
3. facilitating productive zones of learning: that is, being mindful that group work will lead to strategified learning with a division of knowledge. 

In all of these things, the role of the educator is serve as the collaboration designer and collaboration facilitator. So, with this in mind I will work on a project with my Business Studies class to develop a start-up cafe on campus. 

Reimann, Peter. Making online group-work work : Scripts, group awareness and facilitation [online]. In 'Research conference 2018 : teaching practices that make a difference : insights from research : proceedings and program : 12-13 August 2018, International Convention Centre, Sydney' edited by Kylie Cockle, Michaela Skelly, pages 49-52. Melbourne : Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), 2018. Availability: <https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/documentSummary;dn=220278;res=AEIPT> ISBN: 9781742865119 (PDF). [cited 03 Apr 20].

New Tech Project Based Learning. (2020). Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://32dkl02ezpk0qcqvqmlx19lk-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/NTN-projects-vs-PBL.pdf