TY - JOUR T1 - AN ONLINE SEMI-STRUCTURED APPROACH TO HELPING STUDENTS MAKE THE MOST OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL) AU - Elmubarak, Marwan PY - 2021 DA - January DO - 10.18768/ijaedu.819339 JF - IJAEDU- International E-Journal of Advances in Education JO - IJAEDU PB - OCERINT International Organization Center of Academic Research WT - DergiPark SN - 2411-1821 SP - 357 EP - 364 VL - 6 IS - 18 LA - en AB - Project-Based Learning (PBL) typically provides planning students with opportunities to apply knowledge and to synthesize different topics relevant to the context of the area they are studying. As higher education institutions increasingly adjust to online and blended learning, there is a need to reconsider how Project-Based Learning (PBL) can be realized in a fully designed online courses or those utilizing blended learning methods. This paper considers the opportunities and challenges online platforms present to project-based learning by reflecting on the author’s experience with PBL and blended learning techniques he has developed for an urban planning, blended learning course over the last five semesters. The techniques were repeatedly applied and incrementally adjusted from one semester to the next and as needed in response to the instructor’s critical evaluation and students’ feedback. The article reports on lessons learnt and details a semi-structured approach to helping students engage effectively while allowing the instructor to assume more coaching and mentoring roles to facilitate the learning. It also reports on the efficacy of using certain online Apps to increase the effectiveness of Project-Based Learning (PBL) for students’ team projects- both in terms of learning by students, as well as supervising, mentoring and evaluating by the instructor. Students reported benefiting from the approach in several ways including the timely feedback they receive, the personalized pacing and the ability to manage their project as they progress. KW - Project-Based Learning KW - Urban Planning Education KW - Online Approaches KW - Blended Learning KW - Team-Based Learning. CR - Aggarwal, P. & D. O’Brien. (2008). Social Loafing on Group Projects - Structural Antecedents and Effect on Student Satisfaction, Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 30, Issue: 3, pp 255-264. UR - https://doi.org/10.18768/ijaedu.819339 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1373889 ER -