Dean, I am with you... if we really
believe TBL enhances learning (which in my experience it does), and that
grades are an indicator of what has been learned (if our exams, cases,
etc., are designed appropriately, they should be??), than higher grades
seem to be part of the TBL approach.
Cheers!
Gary D. Lynne, Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics and
School of Natural Resources
103B Filley
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68583-0922 USA
Website: http://www.agecon.unl.edu/facultystaff/directory/lynne.html
Phone: 1-402-472-8281 Cell: 1-402-430-3100
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----- Forwarded by Gary
D Lynne/AgEcon/IANR/UNEBR on 05/22/2010 08:09 AM -----
I disagree with reducing the group grade component-
this will diminish
the power of the learning which is the ultimate goal. Dean
Nothing like iPhoneñ‰õµ
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
> *************************************************
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>
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> from the motion picture "The Great Debaters"
> *************************************************