From: <Small>, "Candice B." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Monday, August 11, 2014 at 11:45 AM
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Cc: James Sibley <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: RE: TBL in an online, compressed course
Hi all,
I wanted to share my experience using TBL for a summer class that just finished. I’ve used TBL twice now to great effect with this particular course, which focuses on ethical reasoning and learning how to work in groups. It is taken primarily by freshmen and sophomores and is a gen ed class. The new twist: the class was online, and in a compressed format (just under 5 weeks).
Key for me was making my class have a synchronous component. All students had to be available from 10 am to 12 noon on Wednesdays, which were reserved for group meetings. On the very first day, student had an assignment to learn how to use Adobe Connect, our campus meeting software, which we used for the group meetings. Students took the IRAT through our LMS, with the grade suppressed, by midnight on Tuesday. In the group meeting, they started with the TRAT. Same quiz in the LMS, but this time when it was submitted, the grades and answers were immediately released. I used the 70% rule so that those who scored less than that on the IRAT got the lower score as their TRAT grade for that meeting.
I monitored the TRAT taking and as each group finished, I’d pop into their group meeting room and clear up misconceptions. I probably spent 5 to 15 minutes with each group, so it was probably best that I only had 3 groups!
I also had “pre-work” due Monday and Tuesday which was then scaffolded into the team activities during the Wed meeting. For example, they might have to watch a video and write a reflection on it on Monday, and then on Wed they would use the content from the video in a different way that employed concepts from the TRAT. If the students did not complete the pre-work, they did not get full credit for the team meeting.
I initially wanted to use TBL to ensure accountability in the group meetings, which is very difficult to do with 1) undergrads 2) taking a gen ed class 3)online. And happily, the TBL method did keep the slackers from riding the higher-achieving students’ coat tails.
At the end of the course, I had my students provide feedback and while my class was small, all the students reported liking the TBL- even those who were not doing the pre-work or missed the 70% cutoff. Many mentioned the true purpose of TBL: they loved talking to each other during the TRAT and learning from each other!
Of course, there are a few things to tweak before I teach it again, but overall, I was very, very pleased with the TBL component of the class.
-Candice
Candice Benjes-Small, MLIS
Head, Information Literacy & Outreach
McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, VA
540.831.6801
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