Paula, I had similar issues initially with some teams finishing way ahead of the others. I moved away from the flag system in my course (module in the UK) towards a defined period of time that I expected the application exercise to take and stating this on the screen/handout. Like Larry, I also keep pushing them to keep them on task and reminding them every few minutes how long they have left. Iıve also broken larger applications into smaller components in an evolving case/problem to keep them on track and maintain the energy in the room. To prevent social loafing, I echo Jimıs comment that the application exercise should be sufficiently messy and ill-structured that the team have to spend time discussing it and working out how to solve it and also be sufficiently authentic that they want to solve it because they see it as important to their future learning/future careers. This helps their motivation. I recently spent some time interviewing TBL teams for my EdD research programme and they told me that they like time limits in applications as it keeps them on task. Otherwise (they told me) they spend the first 5 minutes or so talking about other things (Extract from the student focus group - "One of the things thatıs really help keep things moving is that some of the professors will put time limits on applications and thatıs been more helpful to get the class moving along.So I think that has been the best way to combat those kind of things give a quick time limit.²) Just to enter the debate on team size these students also told me that 5 or 6 is the optimal number with 7 being "way too many". These were students who had experienced 3 years of a predominantly TBL program switching teams each semester. More of these students stated that they preferred 5 in a team believing that 6 could slow them down. But if 1 person was missing e.g. due to illness and they found that they were down to 4, then they felt the team didnıt function as well. Quotes from the focus group below: "Iıve been on 3 six-person teams and 3 five-person teams and itıs not such much the people on the teams, itıs that I feel like the work was done quicker and more efficiently in the 5 person team.² "But then that 5 person team is just perfect because one day when there are only 4 of you then you donıt function as well as you do with that fifth person. But I think 6 is one too many!" Best wishes Simon PS. Thereıs a few links below that define and discuss ill-defined problems if youıre interested http://www.cotf.edu/vdc/entries/ILLPS.html http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/carl_ltc/quantitative_writing/wellversusill http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Ill-Structured_Problems ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Simon Tweddell BPharm MRPharmS FHEA Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice Curriculum Development Fellow Centre for Educational Development University of Bradford Bradford United Kingdom BD7 1DP Tel. +44 (0)1274 235241 Email. [log in to unmask] Twitter: @simontweddell Skype: simon.tweddell Accredited Consultant-Trainer in Team-based Learning On 19/09/2014 16:56, "Nichols, A Paula" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Getting ready to start year 4 with TBL for first year medical students in >a class of 150. I have been reviewing comments from previous years in >order to improve the delivery. The biggest negative comment is that it >takes too long and a lot of time is spent listening to answers from >questions that students already know during the application. Most >students state that they like to TBL format in general but think that a >lot of time is spent in the application waiting around. I use the flag >system and have also used clickers to speed up the process but still find >myself spending time answering questions from students that may not have >grasped some basic concepts. So the bottom third of the class benefit >greatly but the top third get bored. The biggest comment is that students >want the application in small groups so they can move through the >material quickly rather than large group. Does anyone have suggestion >about how to navigate these type of questions? > >Paula Monaghan-Nichols >University of Pittsburgh