Dean's concern may be related to his student population. The teachers I work with only use tRAT scores to add a few extra credit "bonus" points to individual, iRAT scrores . The teams still tear into the material as furiously as you'd like. -M ________________________________________ From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dean Parmelee [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 7:41 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Grade Inflation I disagree with reducing the group grade component- this will diminish the power of the learning which is the ultimate goal. Dean Nothing like iPhone On May 21, 2010, at 6:09 PM, "Seltzer, Joseph" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > One can always set the ranges on the various items. If you are > concerned that the grades are too high (which is usually because the > group part is very high - such as the 93.5% below), just allow less > of the grade to be group. > Joe Seltzer > ________________________________________ > From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf > Of Herb Coleman [[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:17 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Grade Inflation > > There must be something in the air this semester. For the first time > in > a while I was a little concerned about the appearance of grade > inflation > because it looked like everyone was going to get an A. For a little > bit > of context, this was a Human Growth and Development course. Over 90% > of > the students were pre-nursing or allied health majors. More than 60% > of > the class was over 30 years old. There were only 20 students and until > the last two weeks only 3 students had an absence. So you had > dedicated, > older than average, motivated students. In a small class (even by > community college standards). > > Still I decided to look at how the grade weights washed out. The > iRAT's > had the lowest average (73%) and accounted for 5% of their grade. The > T-RAT's had 94% average and accounted for 19% of their grade. The rest > of the items spread out accounting for between 5 and 14% of the final > grade. When I looked at the grouping I felt ok about the the final > results. Homework accounted for 24% of the grade (with a 95% average). > Teamwork accounted for 50% of their grade with a a 93.5% average and, > individual assessment accounted for 19% of their grade with an 81 % > average. There is also a professor rating representing 7% of their > grade > with an 83% average. > > Incidentally, the top half would have had A's without the professor > rating (which is based on attendance, homework, iRATs, mid-term grade > and class contribution). The lower half would have had B's. As it is > 10% > got B's. > > Edward Bell wrote: >> --> >> TBL Users: >> We (Drake U. Pharmacy) began using TBL last year in one of our major >> courses (Therapeutics, a 3-semester course, 110 students) - this year >> is our 2nd year. Grades this Spring semester were quite high - 91% >> average (85 A final course grades). This spring semester included 4 >> exams (70% of course grade), 9 IRATs (10% of course grade), 9 GRATs >> (15% of course grade), and 2 peer evaluations (5% of course grade). >> Many students received an A or B that actually had exam and IRAT >> averages each less than the final grade (ie, exam and IRAT av. 75% >> but >> B grade or even 77% each av. and A final grade) - the high GRAT and >> peer evals pushed up final averages, perhaps too much. * My >> questions: >> how much should group work/peer evals factor into final grades, and >> have others had a similar experience (ie, where individual, group, >> and >> final course grades do not seem to correlate)?* >> Many Thanks >> Ed Bell >> -- >> >> Edward A. Bell, PharmD, BCPS >> Professor of Clinical Sciences >> Drake University College of Pharmacy >> Des Moines, IA >> 515-271-1841 > > -- > > Herb Coleman,Ph.D > Dir. Instructional Computing and Technology > Adjunct Professor of Psychology > Austin Community College > Highland Business Center > 5930 Middle Fiskville Rd. > Austin, TX 78752 > [log in to unmask] > 512-223-7746 > ************************************************* > “I, and every other professor on this campus, are > here to help you to find, take back, and keep your > righteous mind.” > > ---Professor Melvin Tolson > from the motion picture "The Great Debaters" > *************************************************