Palangka Raya — Guided Project-Based Learning Student Worksheets have been shown to support improvements in university students’ problem-solving skills and self-regulated learning in a Learning Resources Management course. The finding comes from research by Ima Pinensi Br Tarigan, Mustaji, Utari Dewi, Beta Centauri, and Winda Lestiani. The study was conducted during the second semester of 2025 and involved 82 sixth-semester students in the Educational Technology Study Program at Universitas Palangka Raya. After the worksheets were implemented, students’ average problem-solving score increased from 60.51 to 82.18, while their self-regulated learning score rose from 60.45 to 87.20.
Higher education in the digital era requires students to develop more than theoretical knowledge. They are increasingly expected to solve complex problems, manage their own learning, make decisions based on evidence, and produce practical academic work. These abilities are particularly important for Educational Technology students, who are expected to design, develop, manage, and evaluate learning resources in different educational settings.
The Learning Resources Management course prepares students to analyze institutional needs and design systems for managing learning resources. These systems can be applied in schools, libraries, training centers, community learning centers, and other educational organizations. However, preliminary observations found that classroom activities were still largely focused on theoretical explanations and general assignments. Students often had difficulty identifying authentic institutional problems, analyzing needs, organizing project responsibilities, monitoring progress, and evaluating the feasibility of proposed solutions.
This situation encouraged the development of student worksheets that could provide more structured guidance. Project-Based Learning gives students opportunities to work with authentic problems and create practical products. However, broad project assignments without sufficient guidance can leave students uncertain about where to begin, how to divide responsibilities, and how to manage their time. Guided Project-Based Learning addresses these challenges by maintaining student responsibility while providing structured support through guiding questions, planning sheets, progress-monitoring tools, feedback, evaluation, and reflection activities.
The worksheets developed in the study integrated problem-solving and self-regulated learning. Students were guided to identify problems, analyze needs, establish priorities, develop alternative solutions, select appropriate designs, and evaluate their feasibility. At the same time, they were encouraged to set goals, divide responsibilities, create schedules, monitor progress, use feedback, revise their work, and reflect on their learning process.
The researchers used a Research and Development approach based on an adapted Borg and Gall model. All 82 sixth-semester students enrolled in the Learning Resources Management course participated in the needs analysis and field implementation. During the needs-analysis stage, five students were also selected for interviews based on differences in academic achievement and difficulties experienced during project-based assignments.
The development process consisted of seven stages, beginning with research and information collection, followed by planning, preliminary product development, expert validation, revision, field implementation, and final revision. The product was assessed by three experts specializing in learning materials, instructional design, and educational media before being implemented with all 82 students.
The worksheets were designed for six meetings. Students began with project and problem orientation, followed by project planning, investigation and needs analysis, design development, monitoring and revision, and finally product presentation and evaluation. The final project required students to design a learning-resource management system for an institution. The product included an institutional profile and needs analysis, a vision and mission, a learning-resource design, and a management system.
The expert validation results showed that the worksheets received very positive assessments. The material expert gave an overall score of 92.85 percent, the instructional design expert gave 90 percent, and the media expert gave 92.50 percent. These results indicated that the worksheets were highly feasible in terms of content, instructional structure, graphic presentation, and usability as a learning support tool.
The most notable improvement was found in students’ problem-solving skills. Before using the worksheets, the average score was 60.51. After the learning activities, the average increased to 82.18. The normalized gain, or N-Gain, was 0.55, categorized as moderate. Activities such as problem scenarios, observations, interviews, needs-analysis matrices, and feasibility evaluations helped students move from theoretical understanding toward applying knowledge to real problems.
Students also demonstrated improvement in self-regulated learning. Their average score increased from 60.45 to 87.20, producing an N-Gain of 0.68, also categorized as moderate and approaching the high category. Planning sheets helped students establish goals, divide tasks, and create schedules. Monitoring sheets helped them track progress and identify obstacles, while reflection sheets encouraged students to evaluate their learning strategies and improve their work based on feedback.
The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test showed statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest results for both skills. The significance value was below 0.001, while the reported effect size was 0.87 for both problem-solving skills and self-regulated learning. Within the limitations of the one-group research design, the results indicate meaningful improvement following the implementation of the guided worksheets.
The study highlights the importance of structured guidance in project-based learning. Before using the worksheets, students reported difficulties in determining how to begin projects, distributing responsibilities, managing time, monitoring progress, and evaluating outcomes. With clearer targets for each meeting, students gained a more explicit understanding of what needed to be completed, how progress should be monitored, and when revisions should be made.
For higher education institutions, the findings suggest that project-based learning can become more manageable when students receive systematic guidance without losing opportunities for independent decision-making. Lecturers can use structured worksheets to organize long-term projects more effectively and reduce confusion when students work on complex assignments. The product can also be adapted for other Educational Technology courses that require needs analysis, learning-system design, or educational product development.
The researchers also acknowledge several limitations. The implementation took place in only one study program and one course, while the study did not include a comparison group. Therefore, the improvement cannot be attributed exclusively to the worksheets. Self-regulated learning was also measured through self-report data. Future research is recommended to involve multiple institutions, comparison groups, larger samples, digital or interactive worksheet formats, and longer-term measurements to examine whether the improvements are sustained.
Ima Pinensi Br Tarigan, Mustaji, Utari Dewi, Beta Centauri, and Winda Lestiani conclude that the Guided Project-Based Learning Student Worksheets were highly feasible and showed preliminary effectiveness in supporting students’ problem-solving skills and self-regulated learning. The approach provides students with a structured learning path, from identifying problems and analyzing needs to developing, evaluating, and revising a final learning-resource product.
Author Profiles
Ima Pinensi Br Tarigan — Educational Technology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya.
Mustaji — Educational Technology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya.
Utari Dewi — Educational Technology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya.
Beta Centauri — Educational Technology, Universitas Palangka Raya.
Winda Lestiani — Educational Technology, Universitas Palangka Raya.
Research Source
Article Title: Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills and Self-Regulated Learning Through Guided Project-Based Learning Student Worksheets in Learning Resources Management
Journal: East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (EAJMR), Vol. 5 No. 8, 2026, pp. 3441–3456.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i8.272
Journal Website: https://journaleajmr.my.id/index.php/eajmr
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