Table 1.

Key dimensions shaping learning environments and outcomes in CBL and PBL

• Occasion for engaging content: Contextualized (case based) or decontextualized?
• Mode of engaging student: Problem based or authority based?
• Instructional focus: Content, skills, and/or nature of science?
• Epistemic process: Apply knowledge or generate new knowledge?
• Setting: Historical case or contemporary case?
• Epistemic process: Open-ended or close-ended?
• Authenticity: Real case or constructed case?
• Clarity of problem: Well defined, ill defined, or unspecified?
• Social epistemic dimension: Collaborative or individual?
• Complexity of social epistemics: Single perspective or multiple perspectives?
• Scope: Narrow or broad?
• Level of student autonomy: Narrow or broad?