Hi
One of my original TBL pioneers came to me with the problem of grade creep....grades keeping getting higher each year, he gave his first 100% on the capstone project (In his own words....."I am not sure I could do work that good")....he has decide not to worry about it (he is a tenured full professor....probably has this kind of latitude....all of us don't have similar latitude)
I guess the trouble with TBL.....is that students might learn too much ;-0
Jim Sibley
Director
Centre for Instructional Support
Faculty of Applied Science
University of British Columbia
604-822-9241
-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning on behalf of Sweet, Michael S
Sent: Sat 05/22/2010 8:25 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: Grade Inflation
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"
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