Abstract
In 2002, the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying pioneered a suit of innovative integrated courses using a Problem-Based Learning methodology. These courses are delivered to both on-campus and distance education students across three programs (2, 3, and 4 year) and nine majors. These new courses required students to work in teams to solve a number of contextualised engineering and surveying problems delivered by a multidisciplinary team of academic staff from two different faculties within the university. One of the issues faced by the course development team was the need to develop an appropriate staff development program focusing on the many new skills required to cope with the different learning paradigm. These skills not only included the need to understand PBL and to develop facilitation and conflict resolution skills but to also learn teamwork skills. A Facilitators Guide was written to document many of the course procedures including staffstudent team communication protocols, and best practices for guidance to teams. As part of the staff-training program, a comprehensive workshop was developed dealing with teamwork, facilitation, problem development, assessment and feedback. This workshop was found to be effective in training the academic staff involved in these courses, especially those who are new to PBL methodology. This paper discusses the importance of the staff development program to implementing teambased teaching strategies.