- How many TBL sessions do your students do each week? I'm not quite sure what you mean here, but I'll take a stab at it. Every class session is TBL, whether doing assessments or working on exercises. This should be the case whether you're operating under the American model or the lecture and tutorial model.
- How much time do students need to spend on prework to prepare for each TBL session? That is rather hard to say, as it depends on the length and complexity of the reading material. I provide my students with review questions online to help guide the students through the reading material. I also allow students to bring notes for the assessments, as I want to encourage good study habits. I'm certain that this lengthens the time that students have to spend on pre-work, but it's worthwhile. All in all, the students are spending the amount of time on pre-work that you would expect them to regardless of the teaching method, as ideally faculty want students to have completed the readings before the class period, but rarely do when delivering lectures, as many faculty teach the readings.
- How much time does each RAP (iRAT/ tRAT) take? I provide a 10 question multiple choice RAT at the beginning of the first class meeting each week. The iRAT is timed (first 10 minutes of class).
I generally place them on my desk at the front of the class and ask them to pick up a copy within 1 - 2 minutes of the beginning of the class period. I then project the present time (www.timeanddate.com) on the screen at the front of the class and give them a warning when there is one minute left in the time period. The tRAT tends to go quicker, as students quickly come to a consensus on most questions, but I'd dedicate the same 10 minutes to the tRAT, as you have some groups that lag behind the others.
- How many RAPs do your students do each week? One
- How much time does each Application take? That certainly depends on the application, but just remember that the purpose of the application process is for students to refer to the materials you've just reviewed, complete additional research outside of the class if necessary, to discuss, present their results, and then discuss as a group (entire class, with the instructor facilitating the discussion). For me I generally find that that process takes about 1.5 - 2 hrs, completed generally over multiple class periods.
- How many Applications do your students do each week? There is one exercise that students work on each week. Depending on how many class periods there are (some semesters we deliver two 1.25 hr sessions and others 3 - 50 minute sessions) students may work on it during a single class session or over two sessions. I generally introduce the activity after the mini-lecture, which gives them time to think about it before really working on it in class. I find that I get better results when they have time outside of class to do additional research.
Cheers,
Preman Rajalingam, PhD
Faculty Development
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine