Coaching Team-Based Learning Teams Through Challenges

By Dr. Sarada Bulchand , Dr. Mara McAdams

Oct 14, 2026 • 3min read

Despite best intentions and deliberate attention to team dynamics, TBL teams will encounter challenges. Participation may become uneven, different working styles may create friction, or teams may struggle to address problems on their own.

The educator’s role is not necessarily to step in with the answer. With limited support from educators, teams can learn to examine what is happening, identify what they want to change, and take greater ownership of how they work together.

Two practices can help: coaching teams through challenges using the GROW framework and creating dedicated time to reflect on the team process.

Coach the Team with the GROW Framework

When a team is struggling, the educator’s instinct may be to diagnose the problem and tell students how to fix it.

Coaching takes a different approach: the coach creates the structure for the conversation, but the team owns the problem and the solution.

The GROW framework provides four stages:

Goal

Establish what the team wants to achieve—clearly, positively, and with shared buy-in.

Before moving forward, make sure this is a goal the whole team genuinely cares about. Reframe the goal positively: Instead of “we want to argue less,” for example, ask what the team wants more of. What would successful teamwork actually look like for this team? Have the team describe why this goal is important to harness motivation to make the change.

Reality

Examine the current situation honestly—what is happening, what has been tried, and what is getting in the way.

Teams often jump from identifying a problem straight to proposing solutions. Slow the conversation down. Ask what is already working as well as what is not, and listen for assumptions, blame, or obstacles the team has not yet examined.

Options

Generate a range of possible actions before choosing one.

Encourage the team to produce several possibilities rather than settling on the first obvious idea. Ask: What else could you try? At this stage, the aim is to generate options—not judge them.

Will Do/Way Forward

Commit to a specific action: what the team will do, by when, and how they will know it is working.

“We’ll communicate better” is not yet an action plan. The team might instead agree to a five-minute check-in at the beginning of each session, for example. Support the team to make the plan Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely (SMART), confirm that every member is genuinely on board, and agree when the team will review how it is working.

GROW is not intended to be a rigid script, but a helpful approach to linking the actions to the team’s stated goal. What matters is that the solution comes from the team rather than being imposed upon it externally.

Make Time to Work on the Team—Not Just the Task

Once a course becomes busy, teams naturally focus on completing tRATs, application exercises, and other academic work. Team processes can easily disappear from the agenda.

At Duke-NUS, we have used structured team coaching to make room for that reflection. An initial coaching conversation may take place around six to eight weeks after team formation, when students have enough shared experience to discuss what is actually working and not working.

Not every course can dedicate time for a full coaching session. Scheduling even 10–15 minutes of curricular time periodically for teams to discuss what is working, what needs attention, and what they want to change can be valuable.

Over time, the aim is for teams to become increasingly able to coach themselves.

Want to strengthen your teams before challenges arise?

Read Part 1 for practical ways to help TBL teams understand team development, build trust, and establish clear expectations from the start.

Testimonials

Dr. Julie M Estis Associate Professor University of South Alabama

"Outstanding tool for face-to-face, web-blended and fully online TBL courses! We've been using InteDashboard across several TBL classes at the University of South Alabama and are consistently impressed with the tool as well as the exceptional support from the team. We look forward to increasing utilization of InteDashboard through our campus-wide project."

Dr. Sandy Cook Professor Emeritus, TBL Consultant, TBLC-APC Committee Chairperson Formerly from Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School

"The administrative challenges behind TBL are often viewed as a major barrier to effective implementation. InteDashboard is the only technological solution that puts it all together, allowing the faculty to focus on creating the learning environment - not fumbling with papers, grading and pulling data from different sources."

Dr. John Chapman Assistant Professor Southern Virginia University

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Dr. Jennifer Styron Assistant Professor Eastern Virginia Medical School

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Dr. Judy Currey Professor Deakin University

"I love having real time access to my students performance data and knowing exactly what concepts have or haven’t been understood while they complete their IRATs and TRATs! InteDashboard has significantly enhanced the ease and effectiveness with which I prepare for, and teach in, my TBL classes at Deakin."

Dr. Tom DeWitt Professor Michigan State University

"Overall, I’ve been really pleased with how InteDashboard has elevated the ability to engage students in Team-based learning."

Victor Holmes Assistant Professor University of North Texas Health Science Center

"The InteDashboard platform is unique in what it offers for educators and learners. The ability to interact, work with the quizzes easily, and general functionality of the program are key features not to miss. I have been able to create a more experiential learning environment allowing learners to immediately dive into experiences that simulate real clinical challenges. It was also easy to integrate into Canvas, and students enjoy having the computer version for their groups."

Dr. Sarada Harichand Bulchand Lead Associate Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School

"InteDashboard is a fantastic and very useful platform to conduct classes in a team-based learning setting, probably because it has all the features that team-based learning requires. The features on InteDashboard are so nuanced that they help in enhancing the learning of students, which is the core objective that the educators try to achieve from TBL methodology."

Matthew Robson Senior Learning Designer Macquarie University

"The feature which we find most valuable is the automated grading and item analysis dashboards. They effectively provide staff and students within information that help inform what the clarification session should address. Also, the InteDashboard team provides great support. The team has been responsive to our feedback when we have asked for a possible enhancement to their tool in the past!"

Dr. Chitra Pai Professor Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine

"The support staff was prompt when we were in the initial phase of integrating it into Canvas. It provided the benefits of graded IRAT and TRAT and was really a seamless way to provide active learning in an online environment."

Tanya Bomsta Curriculum Project Manager The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

"Tech support is great, the software is easy to use and learn, online TBL is awesome (and helpful in this time of the pandemic), and the ability for easy peer review is stellar."

Dr. Grady Campbell Professor Nova Southeastern University

"Student evaluations were higher the semester we used InteDashboard than the previous semesters we held TBL in in-person setting."

Russell Marcus Department Chair & Associate Professor Hamilton College

"The great advantage of InteDashboard is that it is a single platform for RATs, peer evaluation, and 4S activities."

Hillel W. Cohen, Dr.P.H. Professor Associate Director of Curriculum, Clinical Research Training Program Albert Einstein College of Medicine

"InteDashboard allowed a seamless transition from paper-pencil response forms to electronic response."

Michael E. Woods, Ph.D. Associate Professor Pathology & Director of Research Laboratories Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine

"InteDashboard gives me the ability to run online TBLs with ease. The interface is intuitive for faculty and students and matches what we would have done in the classroom."

Paul Mcdermott Senior Lecturer University of East Anglia School of Pharmacy

"I have recommended the product to many people already. It is a very versatile product with features that can be applied across a wide range of pedagogies. I have presented this tool to my school not just as a TBL tool but also a way to collect and analyse MCQ data and as a way to facilitate group learning and peer evaluation."

Steve Schneid Managing Director University of California

"I just want to say I love InteDashboard, and it is an integral part of my teaching!"

Dr. Simon Twedell Professor of Pharmacy Education University of Bradford

"It’s more sustainable now – there's less printing, less admin work, and saves a lot of time."

Dr. Gemma Quinn Associate Professor in Clinical Pharmacy University of Bradford

“InteDashboard has made a huge difference. We could have gone back to the way things were before we started using the software, but it would have been an absolute nightmare. The platform is great – it’s all in one place!”

Dr. Steve Cayzer Director of Studies in Mechanical Engineering University of Bath

"I think the real-time dashboard is just really, really, good. It just works. Recently, I used the histograms and answers feature that you can present to students during the RAT debrief – I found that a very useful way of presenting the results!”

Dr. Zachary Noel Assistant Professor University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

“Because InteDashboard is entirely built for TBL, you don't have to fiddle with a lot of settings and multiple softwares, so that certainly saves time. And now that we're in our third year of using InteDashboard, we're able to copy the activities from the prior years and use those, so that has certainly saved time as well!"

Dr. Suzan Kamel-ElSayed Associate Professor in the Department of Foundational Medical Studies Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

"It was very, very easy for us. When comparing what we did before using InteDashboard, with what we have now with InteDashboard - it has been really easy for us. Everything is available on one platform!"

Elias Villarreal, Jr., DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA Associate Dean & Founding Program Director, Professor of Family Medicine University of California San Diego

"InteDashboard has been invaluable to our TBL process!"

Theresa C. Stowell Director for Phase 1 Program / Director for Curricular Design and Innovation SUNY Upstate Medical University

"InteDashboard is a great tool and we look forward to continuing to work with you. We appreciate working with the InteDashboard team and how well you have responded to our feature requests."

Gastón Mousques Chair of Software Engineering Universidad ORT Uruguay

"Intedashboard, in general, took my experience of teaching using TBL to another level, especially in hybrid classes. I really like the real-time information it provides about students, immediate responses, the orderly management of clarification requests, and the e-gallery mode for application exercises."

Daniel Moraga Profesor of Physiology University of Tarapacá

"I really like Intedashboard because its software is the perfect blend of a user-friendly environment and robust enough to fully manage all stages of teamwork using TBL. It's also highly stable and has enough space to manage all TBL materials."

Diane Webb Deputy PG Team Lead and Programme Leader – Specialist Mental Health Pharmacist Pathway Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice (SFHEA) University of Bradford - School of Pharmacy

"I love InteDashboard’s instant report, and details of how students have performed. The flexibility of ability of providing synchronous and asychronous learning is what I need for distance learning students."

Carolyn Williams Assistant Professor of Law University of North Dakota - School of Law

"What I love about InteDashboard is that it allows me to administer individual readiness assurance tests (iRATs) without students seeing their score, while still letting them view their individual responses during the team test (tRAT). This feature has made a significant difference in how my students engage during team discussions. When I used other learning management systems like Canvas, DTL Brightspace, and Blackboard, students could always see their scores immediately after the iRAT—even though they couldn't see which answers were correct or incorrect. This often led to high-scoring students simply sharing their answers during the team test, which short-circuited the deeper, collaborative learning process that team-based learning is designed to support. With InteDashboard, students come to the tRAT ready to discuss and defend their reasoning, which leads to much richer conversations and better learning outcomes."

Danna Young Director of Academic Support and Bar Success Services University of Arkansas Little Rock - William H. Bowen School of Law

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Brandy Fentress Assessment and Evaluation Coordinator Belmont University - Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine

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