ABSTRACT
Objective: High quality problems are crucial for successful learning in Problem Based Learning (PBL). Many criteria have been described in literature about the quality of PBL problems. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of PBL problems and to test its utility. Method: The questionnaire was developed based on literature review. Both students and tutors used the questionnaire to evaluate PBL problems. It was applied at King Fahad Medical City, Faculty of Medicine in the first block of three consecutive years in the academic year 2008. A total of 12 problems were evaluated by students and the tutors. Results: A total of 12 tutors and 36 students applied the questionnaire to evaluate 12 PBL problems. At the overall level, the questionnaire gives an impression on the strong and weak aspects of all PBL problems evaluated. The strongest aspect identified by both students and tutors is that the PBL problems rated in this study have a realistic context. The weakest aspect is that the problems do not adapt to students level of prior knowledge. At a more specific level the instrument can be used to identify strong and weak problems and give suggestions for improvement. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the instrument that has been developed to evaluate the quality of PBL problems provides useful information about strong and weak aspects of PBL problems.