Dear Katie,

Great questions indeed. I can only speak of my experience shifting from f-2-f to online half way through the semester, so, as Julie indicates, this is a slightly different situation, but some of my approach may be of use, and the issue of team leader may be instructive. I too have been using the article that Julie shared with you. However, I've also had to do some additional design using our LMS and discussion boards to support asynchronous discussion.

My students have completed 5 TBL modules f-2-f, so they are familiar with the process in an undergraduate, introductory geography course, part of the general education curriculum. I realize that you are teaching a grad. class, but in any setting that offers TBL (and you aren't part of a large cohort of instructors who do the same) it's an interesting challenge to support student engagement while making some effort to manage anxieties. 

Student Concerns Shifting to Online: Before spring break I surveyed students on their 3 biggest concerns moving to online. Students feared missing deadlines, managing f-2-f virtual classes new duties at home (tutoring younger siblings, having access to internet etc), increased work hours (employers were hearing that classes were shifting online so they were expecting students to do more work). I analyzed the results, reported them back to students, and let them know I had decided to go asynchronous in response. And then of course I've been second guessing myself for a week.  NOTE: I think checking in to assess concerns about mode of instruction and about method of instruction is valuable at the beginning of any new endeavor :)   I designed a small individual assignment that asked students to report how they will be managing their asynchronous deadlines :)

First i-RAT Results: I'm happy to report that this week only 3 students failed to complete their first online i-RAT.  I use Intedashboard, the software and company that Brian (also on this discussion list) directs. The software allows me to quickly check who completed and those who did not. I did have one partial completion - a student forgot it was timed, but she'd already emailed me yesterday. 

Transition Support: I will be reaching out to those folks who missed the i-RAT this morning, checking in to see how they are, and encouraging them to join the t-RAT discussion even if they did not complete the i-RAT. I am also going to provide an extra credit option for those folks so they don't feel left behind as we transition. (We are using discussion boards to create a virtual t-RAt discussion, I'm not happy with that set up but it's what I have on my local LMS and I'd love to hear what others do. In discussion boards you can limit access until students first start a thread, so their first thread is to list the question numbers, indicate the answer they chose and further indicate with an * which questions they were unsure about.)

Leveraging Team Leaders in an asynchronous world. In Intedashboard, each module has a team leader whose role is to report t-RAT responses and also the team's answers to application questions. for the first week of online, I I identified the team's leaders (something I typically don't do) using the alphabet. Then I reached out to those team leaders in a separate email and gave them step-by-step guide on how the t-RAT process would occur what their new responsibilities were in collating team thoughts etc. I then offered office hours and 4 of the 10 team leaders attended, along with other folks who had questions.  As we chatted over zoom, I realized I had some really great team leaders and allies in this effort. We talked about carrots versus sticks as we helped our team members to transition. One team member had got a lowish grade on peer evaluated teamwork. I mentioned that this was a perfect opportunity for him to review the peer feedback (also located in Intedashboard) consider the comments, and then reach out to team members and support their transition. 

My apologies for going a little off track, but I do think that assessing student concerns and then sharing those concerns back with the class can be very powerful, reaching out early to folks who many not quite grasp their role and deadlines, and engaging directly and supporting team leaders are all important.  The latter may play a more important role than I had imagined (at least in my gen ed undergraduate class). 

Manda

On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 6:11 PM Bunting, Katie <[log in to unmask]> wrote: