Week1 thoughts

Editor's Notes

• #3: Our two week online discussion was designed to allow you to extend your learning beyond the TBL WebEx from Larry Michaelsen so you could get started implementing TBL in your classes. It was my hope that you would dive a little deeper into some of the TBL literature and resources, experience the readiness assurance process and a group activity. As a result, you would be ready to design a group activity for one of your classes and determine the next steps in your TBL journey.
• #4: I originally wanted to offer a book discussion around on of the books on TBL, Team-Based Learning: Small Group Learning’s Next Big Step. (with M. Sweet and D. Parmalee). New Directions in Teaching and Learning (January 2009). Buying a book may have been a barrier for some to participate so I elected to go with several articles. You may want to consider one of the books I have listed in the syllabus as you plan your next steps.
• #5: I wanted you to have a chance to experience the RAP and a group activity for yourself. Designing and facilitating this experienece in an online environment added another new twist to my TBL learning curve. I was excited to give it a try and appreciate your patience as I was doing this for the first time. The online environment is a little different so I hope my design gave you enough of a feel so you could take this strategy into your class. In other words, I hope my newness resulted in a positive experience for you. Let’s talk about the iRAT and tRAY process.
• #6: If I were teaching a longer class, I would design a RAP based on the syllabus as a first exposure to the process.I would build in some sort of team-building activity so people could get to know each other.I need to provide more time for groups to process after the iRAT.I would definitely build in an appeals process.The literature suggests using team folders and posting: attendance, iRAT scores, tRAT scores and other assignment info.Your feedback has been invaluable to my learning.
• #7: I think the short time frame effected the outcome of the team RAT. Four people actually did better than 80%. Michaelsen does talk about the transformational process. It takes time for small groups to become powerful cohesive learning teams. Despite the short amount of time, there were some great discussions about key course concepts. I saw people really diving into the content.
• #8: There are cautions about using “All of the above.” questions. There were two of these that caused problems. In this one the question asks for the primary reason for TBL effectiveness. Though students do learn how to work in teams, that is not the primary focus. It really is all about learning the content. Team skills is a great added value. It is true that you need to develop a grading system that includes individual and team works as well as pee feedback but that is not the primary reason for the TBL effectiveness. The development of effective assignments is key to TBL success.
• #9: In this case “all of the above” was the correct answer. The RAP is designed to accomplish all three.
• #10: The phrase “Application Activity Phase” in the stem of this question caused confusion. It was not prominent in the readings. The 3 S’s was a rather picky distractor. There are four S’s as you all know by now, significant problem was missing.
• #11: The peer feedback process is an important TBL element. I am in the process of investigating some of the strategies suggested on the TBL site. I am looking for a way to process this exchange of information quickly because timeliness is important. There are a variety of different strategies for team to report simultaneously. The simultaneous reporting is one of the challenges in implementing TBL on line.
• #12: I found creating this team application exercise to be one of the most challenging part of the course design. This is where you really have to be clear in your mind what it is you are trying to accomplish. That being said, you never really know how successful you will be until you implement the activity. In this case you all eliminated #2 right away and then debated the merits of #1 and #3. I think the process that Group #3 used to select an instructional problem to solve may have resulted in a more significant problem to address than in #1 where the problem was given to them. The problem with executing # 3 is that you then can’t set up the activity for the teams to make a specific choice. It was interesting that no team talked about that aspect of the activity. I did see how the elaborate problem selection process distracted some from the other aspects of the activity. Your discussion revealed ways for me to improve the activity and I thank you for that. All that being said, I think #1 best represents that 4 S’s.
• #13: I can’t thank you enough for being a part of this class. I have learned so much from this experience with you.