There are a handful of universities that have started using Team-based Learning (TBL) in the online modality. Some of these online courses are conducted synchronously, where students and teachers come to a virtual classroom and interact at the same time typically using live web-based video conferencing. Other online courses are conducted asynchronously, where students and teachers interact at different timing and almost do not meet live.
Some of the institutions that we know about are teaching asynchronous hybrid or online TBL, including Augusta University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. These institutions are primarily using online TBL to conduct nursing classes. Graduate nursing programs usually have online components because many working nurses have different work shift patterns, making it difficult to attend physical or even synchronous online classes. This use case will illustrate how most universities are conducting online asynchronous classes.
How to implement asynchronous online TBL?
Every situation will be different and would largely depend on faculty, students, technology and other factors. Here is an illustration of how TBL could be implemented in an asynchronous online modality:
Prework and IRAT on Day 1-2:
Students complete prework 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, they will 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). Like the face-to-face and online synchronous modalities, one member of the team will be the official reporter and submits answers on behalf of the team and receives immediate feedback after each submission. The team members can view the immediate feedback. Teams have the option to meet at their convenience to do the TRAT all at one time together or work over the many readily available collaboration tools to complete the TRAT. Immediately following the TRAT, teams can request clarification on specific questions.
Clarification and Applications on Day 5-6:
To address clarification requests, faculty could choose to provide an explanation or assign teams to provide explanations. Applications could also be released for teams to work on and respond. Teams can submit responses to multiple-choice or free-response applications. Two additional features that we some educators have requested:
1. Application rationale: Teams can type a written rationale for their answer
2. Individual applications: Individuals could be required to submit an individual response to the applications before the team works on applications. This could be used to enhance individual accountability like the Individual Readiness Assurance Test that comes before the Team Readiness Assurance Test
Application Reporting and Discussion Day 7:
After the applications are submitted, faculty can reveal the answers to all the teams. Faculty can now facilitate a discussion with messages and feedback on application responses. One technique is to require students as teams to comment on the responses of the other teams. The other technique is to conduct an e-Gallery walk, where students can view the responses submitted by other teams and vote for the best answer among them. This is a way to have teams learn by reviewing other team responses and critically evaluating what makes a good response.