Implementing Asynchronous Online Team-Based Learning

Brian O'Dwyer

Nov 27, 2020 • 8min read

TBL has traditionally been used in face-to-face courses where students and teachers are all in the same room. But with an increasing trend towards distance learning and wider availability of technology, it has become possible to conduct TBL in an online environment.

Online courses taught with a TBL format tend to be highly engaging compared to lecture based online courses, which turns out to be a huge value-add for students learning from a distance. If you are considering implementing TBL in an online course, here are some examples and case studies on implementation of TBL online:

Synchronous Online Courses: Teachers and students are in different places, but are all taking their RATs and application cases at the same time while being connected online through video based web conferencing tools.

Asynchronous Online Courses: These types of courses are more in line with self-paced online courses where students can do their pre-work and answer RATs / application cases in their own time.

Implementing Asynchronous Online TBL

Every situation will be different and depend on faculty, students, technology and other factors but an illustration of how TBL could be implemented in an asynchronous online modality follows below.

Online Asynchronous TBL Timeline

As you can see, asynchronous online TBL can be conducted in a three-weeks-per-topic format or in a one-week-per-topic format. We will elaborate further for the latter.

Pre-work and IRAT on Day 1-2

Students complete pre-work on their own along with an online Individual Readiness Assurance Test (“IRAT”). Students may start the test anytime during Day 1 or Day 2. However, once they start the IRAT that only have 10 minutes to answer 10 readiness assurance questions.

TRAT and Clarification Request on Day 3-4

Teams complete the online Team Readiness Assurance Test (“TRAT”) over a few days time. Like in a face-to-face course, one member of the team is the official reporter and submits answers on behalf of the team. If you are using InteDashboard, teams receives immediate feedback after each submission

Team-Based Learning - Immediate Feedback

Immediate Feedback On The TRAT Screen

Other team members can view the immediate feedback as well. Teams have the option to meet at their convenience to do the TRAT all at one time together or use online communication tools of their choice to complete the TRAT at their own pace. Immediately following the TRAT, teams can request clarification on specific questions that they have not completely understood despite team discussion.

Teams Can Request Clarification Without Having To Speak Up!

Faculty Can Analyze The Data

Before proceeding to the clarification session, faculty can visualize the following with InteDashboard:

IRAT data
TRAT data
Clarification Requests

IRAT Data

Faculty can use the "Item Analysis" feature on InteDashboard to see trends on students' results. For instance, a big portion of the class might have gotten one or two questions wrong. Thus, faculty might want to consider focusing on clarifying those specific questions.

Item Analysis

TRAT Data

Similarly, by using InteDashboard, faculty can analyze the data to uncover the questions that presented more difficulty for teams during the TRAT and then decide to focus on explaining those during the clarification session.

Performance Data From The TRAT

Clarification Requests

Finally, instructors can also consider the questions for which students are explicitly asking for further clarification as seen below.

Equipped with knowledge from IRAT/TRAT performance and from clarification requests, faculty are now well informed to make an effective and highly targeted clarification session.

Clarification and Applications on Day 5-6

Clarifications

To address clarification requests, faculty could choose to provide an explanation directly to teams themselves or assign other teams in the course to provide explanations.

Teams Work on Applications

Also, by using InteDashboard, applications could be released for teams to work on and respond. Teams can submit responses to multiple choice or free response application cases on it. Faculty can also require teams to submit a rationale along with their response to applications.

Application Reporting and Discussion Day 7

After the applications are submitted, faculty can reveal the answers to all the teams and facilitate a discussion with messages and feedback on application responses by using InteDashboard.

One technique is to require students or teams to comment on the responses of two other teams other than their own.

Another technique, only available with InteDashboard, is the “e-gallery walk” which is used with free response applications. This feature allows teams to vote on the best application response other than their own team. This is a way to have teams learn by reviewing other team responses and critically evaluating what makes a good response.

E-gallery Walk

For more information on how to use InteDashboard to conduct an E-gallery walk, refer to this article.

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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 Emeritus Professor, 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

"I'm convinced, and I've done a fair amount of looking over the past few years to identify an online quizzing/survey tool that allows for individual question submission and real-time feedback (especially for the TRAT). InteDashboard really is the premier solution in this category. Bar none. Hands down."

Dr. Jennifer Styron Assistant Professor Eastern Virginia Medical School

"Ability to get real-time data on RAT test items during teaching and save this information (i.e. scores on assessments) has made the tool an essential element to my everyday online teaching."

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."

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!"