I concur. This is my fifth time using TBL and I still haven’t been able to design the “perfect” application activity. I’ve designed some good ones, but they stray away from the concept of holding up cards or voting simultaneously. There is still simultaneously discussion, but not in the sense as talked about in the TBL literature. In particular, I found that voting did not stimulate active/robust class discussion, so I’ve changed most of it to interaction between teams as the simultaneous reporting.

I think, in part, it depends on the topic/concepts being learned, but I also think it is just something you have to find your own way through by trial and error. I must be doing better each term because my teaching evaluations increase every quarter, likely as my material gets clearer, the activities get honed, and I get more confident in what I’m doing.

If you are like me, you are all alone on your campus – the only one using TBL. So, it’s challenging to get support. This listserv is great but I wish I could attend theTBL conference to interact with others using TBL. It’s not possible at this time (i.e., I wouldn’t be supported by my university to go), but maybe in the future!

~ Tricia

Tricia Bertram Gallant, Ph.D.

Director, Academic Integrity Office

Lecturer, Rady School of Management

University of California, San Diego

301 University Center

9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0069

858-822-2163

http://academicintegrity.ucsd.edu

UC San Diego is a proud institutional member of the International Center for Academic Integrity

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dan Acland
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 8:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Activities for Economics

I don't have suggestions, but have a comment I'd like to share with the whole list, because no one told me, and others might benefit from hearing this. Designing genuinely good team assignments is *seriously* hard. Way harder than anything I found on the TBL website would lead you to believe. I say this only because under-appreciating this lead to a rather shocking first outing for me. Caveat Doctor.

Dan Acland.

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 12:56 PM, James Latham <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I will be using TBL for the first time in my microeconomics course this Spring. Designing activities that are effective with this approach is my biggest concern. I would love any advice on TBL activities specifically for Econ.  I would greatly appreciate any activities that have worked great & any info on what NOT to use.

If you have any suggestions please reply to me directly and not the list serve. Thank you,

Michael Latham

James "Michael" Latham, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Business & Computer Systems
Collin College - Spring Creek Campus
SCC J228
972.578.5514
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