At 08:49 AM 12/29/2007, you wrote:
>Something else that's missing from the "health" TBL book is the
>"Setting Grade Weights" exercise, with which the class determines
>the weights of the various types of evaluation. Is this exercise
>available elsewhere, preferably online?
>
>To reduce the math involved, my own inclination is to weight by
>providing different numbers of points for different things, rather
>than getting into percentages. For example, an IRAT question might
>be worth 1 point, GRAT 1, and end-of-topic 3. But that's what I
>would let the students decide, I guess.

Lane,

Here are forms I use when running the Setting Grade Weights exercise:
  - the Word document allows (requires) the teams to come to class
with their initial decisions set
  - the spreadsheet is displayed in class to show the teams the class
average (I've erased the formulae)
  - the initial breakdown of 1000 points in the syllabus gives the
students a general guide as to my view, which they can adjust in teh
Setting Grade Weights exercise

I found this level of organization necessary since I was using 40 or
so teams in this class. You can adapt it for any number, of course.

My biggest challenges with incorporating the 'Setting Grade Weights'
component of TBL were:
  - how to explain it to the students clearly and simply
  - what "stake" to put in the ground at the beginning of the
semester - i.e., what percentages do we START with, so students see
how their grade is calculated

So what I do is:
  - pick MY initial breakdown of points (and tell them if the class
can't agree on Grade weights in one in-class session, we will revert
to my initial point distribution)
  - use the forms attached to this message to run the exercise
  - update the syllabus and re-distribute this new point distribution
after the exercise

BTW, virtually every class begins thinking that there is too much at
stake for "team" points. And virtually every class ends up increasing
the "team" points when they talk through the issues in Setting Grade
Weights! (As Larry intended it to go, I believe. Then THEY'RE
responsible for the choice, and you have buy-in!)

Hope this is helpful.

Andy


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