Seeking Insights on Conducting TBL Sessions – Share Your Experiences!

Team-Based Learning
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Hi everyone,

In a Team-Based Learning (TBL) environment, application activities often take up a significant portion of class time. We’ve observed that educators have varied strategies when it comes to structuring TBL sessions. To better understand these diverse approaches and perhaps refine our own methods, I’m hoping you could share some details about how you manage TBL in your courses.

If you’re willing, please provide insights on the following aspects of your TBL modules:

  1. Frequency of TBL Sessions: How many TBL sessions do you conduct per semester?
  2. Readiness Assurance Test (RAT) Questions: How many questions do you include in a RAT?
  3. Post-TRAT Discussions: How much time do you allocate for discussions after the Team RAT?
  4. Application Activities: How many application exercises do you typically conduct in a session?
  5. Post-Application Discussions: After an application activity, how much time do you set aside for discussion?
  6. Peer Evaluation: How frequently do you conduct peer evaluations during the semester?

Your experiences and insights will be incredibly valuable for all of us looking to optimize our TBL practices. You can provide a brief summary of your teaching context and then answer these questions. Looking forward to your responses!

Thank you!

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Dear Shreya
Please see my responses to your questions below:

  1. Frequency of TBL Sessions: How many TBL sessions do you conduct per semester? Approximately 5 TBL sessions over a period of 10-11 weeks. Sessions are 1hour and 50 minutes long.

  2. Readiness Assurance Test (RAT) Questions: How many questions do you include in a RAT? Variable 10-25 depending on the cohort

  3. Post-TRAT Discussions: How much time do you allocate for discussions after the Team RAT? Variable, depends on how many questions are raised by students and whether a particular question got a low score

  4. Application Activities: How many application exercises do you typically conduct in a session? 1-2

  5. Post-Application Discussions: After an application activity, how much time do you set aside for discussion? 5-10 minutes

  6. Peer Evaluation: How frequently do you conduct peer evaluations during the semester? This is the first year I have run TBL sessions for a whole unit but I did not use the peer evaluation

Best wishes
Zoë

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Here is what we do regarding structure of TBL modules:

  1. Frequency of TBL Sessions : How many TBL sessions do you conduct per semester? M1 year – 1st semester – 37; 2nd semester 40. M2 year – 1st semester – 38; 2nd semester - 18
  2. Readiness Assurance Test (RAT) Questions : How many questions do you include in a RAT? 5 iRAT/tRAT questions.
  3. Post-TRAT Discussions : How much time do you allocate for discussions after the Team RAT? Ideal = 15 but not > 30 minutes (this is entirely faculty dependent)
  4. Application Activities : How many application exercises do you typically conduct in a session? 2 – 5; again, faculty dependent
  5. Post-Application Discussions : After an application activity, how much time do you set aside for discussion? There is no dedicated time set aside at the end.
  6. Peer Evaluation : How frequently do you conduct peer evaluations during the semester? ~ every 3 – 4 weeks (revisiting this summer)

Mary

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