ABSTRACT
The authors uses online learning in a university context. They identify four key action areas to which the online instructor should pay particular attention: pedagogy, social interaction, management and technology. Like the pedagogical role, the social side of the Smartweb is an important indicator of the online course's success or failure. While the pedagogical role primarily relates to direct instructor involvement in class activities and the social role concerns or class climate or tone, online managerial actions involve overseeing task and course structuring. Having public portfolios has increased the quality of student work and has contributed to a sense of a learning community in the class. The technological tools available to support problem-based learning currently are quite limited. To make the problem-based learning (PBL) process more concrete, the instructor establishes conferences that visually match the PBL learning process. In conclusion, PBL can be employed successfully online.
