Janet, Would you mind sharing the set of sample RAT questions along with a guide for preparing for RATs that you post on Blackboard? I think that's something that would help a lot of us--including me. I'm also interested in the level of difficulty of your bonus question and a bit more detail on how it "counts" for individuals and teams. Larry On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Janet Stamatel <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > For my 300-level intro criminology course, I expect students to average > about 60-70% on the individual and over 90% on the team RATs. The RATs are > 10 questions and I specifically tell them that 7-8 are straightforward > (definitions, main ideas) and 2-3 are more challenging (application, > inference, projection, etc.). The idea is that if everyone on the team is > prepared then they should be discussing the 2-3 challenging questions > during > the team RATs, thereby learning the skills they need to figure out the > correct answers for those kinds of questions. > > To help alleviate the stress, I post one set of sample RAT questions along > with a guide for preparing for RATs on Blackboard at the beginning of the > semester. This illustrates the difference between an easy and a hard > question. > > I have also added an extra credit question for the individual part only. > If > they think a question was unfair or too picky but the team answered it > correctly (and therefore they cannot appeal it), then they have the comfort > of knowing that there was some compensation. (BTW, this has not inflated > the individual RAT scores like you might suspect it would.) > > I agree with the previous post re: student resistance. It gets much easier > to manage over time. > -- ******************************* Larry K. Michaelsen, Professor of Management Dockery 400G, University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 660/429-9873 voice/cell phone, 660/543-8465 fax For info on: Team-Based Learning (TBL) <www.teambasedlearning.org> Integrative Business Experience (IBE) <http://faculty.ucmo.edu/ibe/home.html > *******************************