An emic lens into online learning environments in PBL in undergraduate dentistry

Whilst face-to-face tutorial group interaction has been the focus of quantitative and qualitative studies in problem-based learning (PBL), little work has explored the independent learning phase of the PBL cycle from an interactionist perspective. An interactional ethnographic logic of inquiry guided collection and analysis of video recordings and learning artefacts across tied cycles of activity (multiple days and times) to identify evidence of learning in an undergraduate health sciences curriculum. An additional stimulated recall interview provided further emic perspectives of online learning during a self-directed learning session within the PBL cycle of activity. This approach guided the identification of key events, intertextual ties across chains of events, and the transcribing and mapping of changes in problem-solving across events, actors and times. Records included problem-based sessions in dental education, overtime video records, transcriptions, and analysis of online work and reflections on accounts constructed by undergraduate dental students. Key findings examined the role of online resources in supporting PBL curriculum design as well as provided "emic" insights into student knowledgebuilding processes. Interactionist analyses enabled the unfolding, recursive and re-iterative nature of disciplinary knowledge and identity construction across time and contexts through the use of more contextualized forms of representation as "evidence".