I use TBL in introductory and intermediate level economics courses. I use a good bit of group multiple choice in developing concepts and basic application, with public reporting (1 to 5 numbered cards for each team). I also use it for application, with groups providing short written answers to problems that may involve interpretation of a real world situation for example, interpretation of events in a news article or extrapolation to understand how the response might be different if demand were more or less elastic. I will sometimes also have teams choose the "best example of ...", usually given some time to read the examples in advance but not told just what I would ask them. Whenever I do that sort of assignment, they are also responsible for explaining why they chose the one they chose AND why each of the others was not chosen.

In my intermediate level course, I do some more involved activities, including teams grading other teams on certain things, where they are told that I will grade their grading effort. This helps them to learn to evaluate others more critically. And I hesitate to have a group "project" of any sort that requires outside of class time, but I have assigned various research projects with results to be presented to the class (in whatever manner the groups find interesting and informative). I always provide plenty of time in class for the groups to coordinate these projects and they are invariably mentioned as one of the students' favorite parts of the class.

I'd be glad to share specific examples if you'd like.

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Molly Espey
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics
263 Barre Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634