Hi—I’ve been using TBL in my Introduction to Epidemiology course in a BS/MD program.  I teach in the third year.  The instructor who teaches Introduction to Demography/Health Statistics (which introduces many of the epidemiology and biostatistics topics applied in my course) has decided also to use some aspects of TBL in his course next year.  He teaches one semester before I do.  In our school, the entire cohort of students takes all classes together.  (Thus, those in the 2^nd year class, will be the exact same students in the 3^rd year class.) Also, the material covered in the 3^rd year is an in depth extension of the same material covered in the 2^nd year.

I am concerned about a couple of problems.  

1) I set up teams in a way that everyone sees how the team formation is done: I have everyone line up in the class room, then ask those with strong biostatistics skills to move to the front (<10% of the class), and continue like this with a series of skills that I think are relevant to understanding Epidemiology.  I then ask the students to stand next to their best friend (hoping to break up these tight pairs that ruin group cohesion). I have students count off, and create groups of 6-7 students.  If the students are aware of this process, they will “game” the process and make sure that they end up in teams with their friends (these are very young students with very close ties to their friends).  If the instructor before me sets up groups, making this process very transparent, I’m worried that it will negatively impact on my group formation.  How can I avoid this, keeping the process transparent? (Remember the relevant skills are the same in both classes…)

2) I have the students vote on the grading process during the first day of class.  The final exam counts for 40% of the grade.  The other 3 components of the grade are: IRATS, GRATS (and group assignments), and peer evaluations.  Each of those 3 must count for at least 10% of the grade.  Voting on grades has done wonders in allowing the students to feel a part of the development of the course and the grading process. I have never had complaints about grades, since they were part of establishing the process.  However, if the students have had prior experience with TBL, this voting process will reflect their experience of the value of groups grades (always higher than individual grades), perhaps to an extreme.  Should I omit the process of voting for grades in this case, as the outcome will be very clear (40% group, 10% IRAT, and 10% peer), and force the IRATS to be worth more to force the students to spend time on studying for IRATS?  Again, our students are very grade-oriented, and are more concerned with getting A’s than developing good study habits at this point.

I would appreciate any other advice from folks who teach TBL courses with the same class of students over a number of years. Are there things that the year 2 instructor and I should coordinate? Are there problems that he and I should know about ahead of time?

Thanks!