I distribute multiple applications on paper and use stop signs and notices not to proceed to control student pace through the activity. The vast majority of teams respect these stop signals.

The advantages are that I can have students work on just one application if I want to sequentially reveal case information, or on a few applications if they are related. Paper allows for more text/graphics/data to be given to the students for each question than can be legibly projected. 

My experience is that it is helpful to let teams work on a couple problems at the same time because different teams may work through different problems at different rates. This keeps more of them engaged. When they only have one problem to work on, they have nothing else to do when they have reached consensus.

Regards,

Chris Burns

University of Illinois College of Medicine

> Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 07:01:58 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Application Exercise Medium
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Last semester was my first using TBL. This semester I am using TBL for the
> second time but for a different course. So, a number of variables are
> changing at once, meaning any conclusions that I draw are speculative.
>
> Last semester I printed all my applicaton exercises (AEs) on paper and
> distributed them to the students. This semester I projected the AEs on a
> screen in front of the class.
>
> The big difference between paper and screen projections is that with the
> latter I get to control the pace. With the former, some teams would race
> ahead while other teams lagged. This meant that although reporting was
> simultaneous, the groups were often working on different problems at the
> same time.
>
> I have always resisted using a projector in any of my classes. My classes
> are writing intensive and capped at 25 students, so I always preferred the
> spontaneity and flexibility of writing with chalk on the board. Once I
> started TBL, it became impractical to write the AEs on the board, so I just
> printed them up as handouts, clinging to my old antiprojection bias.
>
> I am now convinced that, at least in the TBL context, Powerpoint projections
> are far superior to paper for AEs.