Did You Know?: Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning

March 4, 2011

The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, a cross-disciplinary outlet for scholarly research on problem-based learning, is free and available to anyone online.

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More than five years ago, a Purdue interest group with a focus on teaching practice initiated the idea of creating an academic journal -- the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning -- as a cross-disciplinary outlet for scholarly research on problem-based learning.

IJPBL, co-edited by Peg Ertmer, professor of curriculum and instruction, published its first issue in 2006 as open-access and continues to be free and available to anyone, both nationally and internationally. As of April 2010, IJPBL has been accessed by individuals in the United States, Indonesia, South Korea, Canada and England.
 
Problem-based learning, which is the learning that occurs when an authentic problem is encountered and worked through to find solutions, is practiced across many disciplines from engineering and education to military and medicine. Doctors, medical practitioners, K-12 teachers and higher education professors have accessed articles in IJPBL.

The journal, published by Purdue University Press, receives funding from the Teaching Academy at Purdue. This funding, which began in July, covers all copy editing and some marketing expenses and will continue for two years.
 
By maintaining high-quality articles, keeping a 15 percent acceptance rate, securing indexing and continuing to increase article downloads, the journal can prompt the Teaching Academy to extend funding to a third year.

* Number of IJPBL articles downloaded:
   2006 -- 5,447
   2007 -- 8,392
   2008 -- 9,158
   2009 -- 23,680
   2010 -- 33,162

IJPBL publishes in the fall and spring and contains an editor's introduction, three main articles and a book review. The topics addressed in the journal vary among disciplines including biomedicine, therapy education, military, nursing and engineering education.

To access IJPBL, visit https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ijpbl or https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~cmong/IJPBL.


Source: Peg Ertmer, pertmer@purdue.edu