The affordances of online learning technologies have enabled more widespread development of learning environments that facilitate the exploration and solving of complex and realistic problems. In this paper, we describe the design of a real world geography problem, embedded within a web environment that is facilitated by an onsite excursion for data collection. The learning environment has been designed to deliberately address known problems associated with the problem solving approach, specifically in regard to three issues, and uses scaffolding prompts and supports embedded within the environment to facilitate student learning.The paper describes the theoretical foundations for the approach, the design of the learning task, and specific scaff~lding approaches used in the environment.
Ill-structured problems in school learningComplex problems lie at the heart of most experiential and student centred learning environments (Hmelo-Silver, 2002;Jonassen, 2000;2006). The design of complex and authentic problems has been the focus of much research and development activity over the past two decades, as teachers and designers seek to adopt more meaningful and engaging approaches to their learning environments. However, the design of a meaningful problem can be difficult if it is to enable students to learn not only content knowledge but also higher order thinking and problem solving skills (Hmelo-Silver, 2002). Such problems are not commonly found in most educational contexts, as Jonassen (2000) noted:Virtually everyone, in their everyday and professional lives, regularly solves problems .. , Unfortunately, students are rarely, if ever, required to solve meaningful problems as part of their curricl,l.ia. The few problems that students do encounter are normally well-structured (story) problems, which are inconsistent with the nature of the problems they will need to learn to solve in their everyday lives. (p. 63)
532Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2006, 22(4) Others have argued that most set problems lack the complexity required to help students learn to use the knowledge they have acquired in appropriate and adaptive ways (e.g. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1993). In dealing with simple, or well-structured problems, Collins (1988) has argued that students often invoke 'suboptimal schemes' for remembering information solely to pass tests, rather than to address the genuine demands of a real problem. 'For example, arithmetic students might conclude that any word problems including the word left (How many did she have left?) are subtraction problems ... such knowledge is less likely to be stored in a form that is useable when applied to novel situations' (pp. 2-3). In these contexts, knowledge itself is seen by learners as the final product of education rather than a tool to be used dynamically to solve problems (Cole, 1990). Sternberg, Wagner and Okagaki (1993) analysed the differences between the kinds of problems learners face in academic situations and practical, real world applica...
