Hi Gretchen,
I use RATs in an introductory environmental science class and have had similar issues.
For students who have accommodations for extra time, low distraction environment, etc., I have found it works out well to allow those students early access to review the questions. I’ve used a couple of approaches. I use Canvas for iRATs, but if you plan on in-class on paper iRATs, one of these approaches could be adapted as long as you have a LMS such as Canvas. Here’s a little description of each approach.
1. Provide a list of the questions (with or without answers) to the students with accommodations through the LMS at a specific time for a specific length of time. My class is usually at 8:00 am; some students have selected late afternoon or the evening before and others have selected the morning of. For example, a list of questions might become available for a student to review at 7:15 am and end at 7:45 am before the iRAT begins at 8:00 am. Sometimes I have offered just a list of questions and sometimes both questions and answer options.
* This allows the students to read the questions and have a chance to think about them in a location of their choosing before the actual iRAT. In Canvas, I have the question order scrambled which I believe helps avoid simple memorization.
* I stress that the preview is just for reading, not for copying, but I have no way to check if students observe this. In general, I find students with testing accommodations to be quite serious in their responsibility to not misuse the privileges and risk losing them.
2. Allow students with testing accommodations to begin earlier than the rest of the class. This has worked out for my class since there are no classes before 8:00 am.
For students who cannot attend on the RAT days, my firm policy is:
* Students may be excused from the iRAT for valid, documented reasons. The iRAT score is 0 for unexcused absences.
i. Students can view the questions and answers through the LMS after the RAT is completed and all the grading is completed.
* All students on a given team receive the tRAT score earned by the participating team members, regardless of participation or absence (excused or unexcused).
i. Lack of participation not deemed acceptable by other team members is reflected later in team evaluation scores.
Overall, these methods don’t require much extra time on my part and students with accommodations have seemed satisfied with the arrangements and appreciative of the chance to benefit from the accommodations even though the assignments are relatively low stakes.
Good luck with TBL your first attempt! I think you’ll like it and find the wrinkles are usually not too difficult to deal with!
Beth Carraway
_________________________________________________________
ELIZABETH CARRAWAY | Associate Professor
Environmental Chemistry
Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences<http://www.clemson.edu/cecas/departments/eees/>
College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences<http://www.clemson.edu/cecas/>
342 Computer Court | Anderson, SC 29625
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[Clemson University]<http://www.clemson.edu/>
From: Team-Based Learning <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Plunkett, Richard
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2024 4:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: First time TBL user - questions about testing accommodations
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Hi Justin,
Thanks for the message. You bring up valid concerns, some of which we have dealt with on our campus. Our students are responsible for booking their exams (and quizzes) through the Disabilities Resource Centre well ahead of time. Whenever possible, the DRC schedules them to start early enough to accommodate any extra time, as well as “travel time” to get to the classroom on schedule. My responsibility as an instructor is to provide the DRC with dates/times for the in-class exams and quizzes. The students are briefed ahead of time, and understand that they will be escorted by a DRC invigilator who makes sure they don’t use their phones or look at their books. Rarely, a student’s timetable necessitates them writing their exam much earlier, or perhaps the previous day. In these cases, they basically sign an academic integrity contract promising not to discuss the exam or look things up. It’s basically on the honour system. If they do look up answers, it would benefit their whole team—but those stakes are fairly low (RATs are not a large component of the grade; team portions of two-stage exams are 15% of the exam grade).
It is an imperfect system to be sure, but it works well, and I have not encountered any problems with academic misconduct.
Cheers,
Richard
From: Justin Kalef <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Friday, January 5, 2024 at 12:07
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>, "Plunkett, Richard" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: First time TBL user - questions about testing accommodations
[CAUTION: Non-UBC Email]
Hi, Richard. That sounds like a great solution, but how do the students at the DRC join the students in class so quickly? Our Office for Students with a Disability is very far away from my usual classroom, and travel would take about half an hour (not to mention the fact that the students who make the trip could easily look up the answers along the way).
Best,
Justin
On Friday, January 5, 2024 at 02:19:44 PM EST, Plunkett, Richard <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear Gretchen,
Congratulations on taking a TBL leap in your class. 😊
I employ TBL in large-enrolment science classes (up to 300 students) and always have a number of students who require accommodations for RATs and the two-stage exams I use. We have a great system worked out with our Disabilities Resource Centre (DRC). Briefly, students request accommodations ahead of time, and the DRC schedules and invigilates the individual portions of the RATs/exams at the testing facility. I provide information about what time the team portion will begin, and the students who write their individual part are scheduled such that they finish in time to be accompanied by an invigilator to join their team just in time to work together on the team portion.
In the end, most students have opted out of using the DRC for iRATs. I believe it is because of the low stakes and low(er) pressure of RATs compared with exams.
For students who miss a RAT with an excuse, I generally exclude that RAT from their grade. And in a recent biochemistry class I taught (with just four TBL modules), as an experiment I did not grade RATs at all!
I look forward to hearing how others help with accommodations, and I hope this is helpful!
Best regards,
Richard
--
Richard M. Plunkett Ph.D. (He, Him, His<https://equity.ubc.ca/resources/gender-diversity/pronouns/>)
Associate Professor of Teaching
Program Advisor – Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Medical & Molecular Biology)
Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science | Biology Department
The University of British Columbia | Okanagan Campus | Syilx Okanagan Nation Territory
1177 Research Road | Kelowna BC | V1V 1V7 Canada
Phone 250 807 9650
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[UBC E-mail Signature]
From: Team-Based Learning <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Gretchen Sneegas <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Gretchen Sneegas <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Friday, January 5, 2024 at 09:59
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: First time TBL user - questions about testing accommodations
Hello all,
I will be using TBL in one of my classes for the first time this quarter. The class is an in-person 200 level environmental geography class. There will be four modules with a RAT at the start of each; students will also take the final using the same format (individually first, then in teams).
I have several students with testing accommodations - e.g. extra time, low-distraction environment, etc. Are there any recommendations for how to best accommodate the RAT process for such students?
Additionally, I have some students who have reached out to me that will be absent on some of the days when in-class RATs will happen. What recommendations are there for how to make up RATs if a student has to miss one of those days due to sickness or something else outside of their control?
Thank you for your help, and I am so excited to try this process out for the first time!
Very best,
Gretchen
--
Gretchen Sneegas, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Teaching Professor
Geography Department
University of Washington
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Personal Website<https://gretchensneegas.com/>
Recent Publications:
Sneegas, G., L. Seghezzo, C. Brannstrom, W. Jepson, and G. Eckstein. 2022. "Do not put all your eggs in one basket: social perspectives on desalination and water recycling in Israel." Water Policy 24(11): 1772-1795. LINK<https://iwaponline.com/wp/article/24/11/1772/91796/Do-not-put-all-your-eggs-in-one-basket-social>
Brannstrom, C., W. Jepson, S. Beckner, G. Sneegas, and L. Seghezzo. 2022. "Not a silver bullet: social perspectives on desalination and water reuse in Texas." Urban Water Journal 19(10): 1025-1037. LINK<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1573062X.2022.2134808>
Sneegas, G. 2022. "Producing (extra) ordinary death on the farm: unruly encounters and contaminated calves." Social & Cultural Geography 23(1): 63-82. LINK<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2021.1901975>
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