On 26 September, a group of ANU academics and professional staff gathered for a hands-on workshop on Team-Based Learning (TBL). The session, led by Associate Professor Stuart Clark, allowed participants to learn about the theory and practice of Team-Based Learning through experiencing it themselves. I had the opportunity to interview one of the attendees, Ann Smith from the Research School of Management here at ANU, who shared her valuable insights and experiences from the workshop.
Gaining new perspectives on teaching
Ann explained that she focuses much of her teaching on interactive exercises for students in pairs or small groups, and so was hoping to learn from someone else’s experiences. “But what I had not realised is that “Team Based Learning” (TBL) is actually a structured approach to teaching semester-long classes through a combination of flipped classroom and team-based work. It was very interesting to learn about how that approach is designed and to learn from the facilitator’s extensive experience with TBL.”
When asked about the most engaging aspects of the workshop, Ann commented that “The workshop was designed to simulate the Team Based Learning approach, so we didn’t just learn about the theory – we also saw how the elements work together. It gave a deeper insight into the TBL approach, in particular that clarified some key points to watch out for when implementing TBL.”
Team Based Learning facilitates student interactions and collaboration
Ann mentioned that participants worked in small teams for much of the workshop to discuss the concepts, and collaboration was required to come up with answers to quiz questions by consensus. These exercises were scaffolded by the flipped classroom approach, as that ensured a common level of awareness of the discussion points.
I now have a new course-level option in my toolkit, so that’s very useful. Many teaching techniques and tools are session-level or exercise-level; having a course-level approach that will link together the teaching over the length of a semester is very helpful. And to assist us in that, Associate Professor Stuart Clark provided good course materials – clear slides that can be referred to when planning a course, and some key references to the literature.
I also learned about a new online tool that can support group discussion in TBL but could also be used for many other teaching situations. It’s called InteDashboard, and it’s a bit like Menti or Socrative but it is team-oriented. It allows the teams to work together and also permits the facilitator to monitor their progress.
Applying TBL to academic work
Ann intends to try TBL – perhaps piloting it in a small class and then scaling it up.
“Any methodology is designed for a particular set of circumstances and a highlight of the workshop was exploring circumstances where some aspect of the design of TBL could usefully be varied to address those circumstances. For example, TBL sets up diverse teams at the beginning and then holds the students in those teams throughout the course. This is to minimise effort and time required for them to re-build teams each week. But one participant in the TBL workshop is teaching teamwork, and he saw value in varying the team composition each session so that each week the students practice building a team. So I think TBL is flexible enough to address the needs of my courses.”
When working with online tools, Ann mentioned how important it is to “Check the tech!!” and how true this is for any workshop as there was a technical glitch at the start if the workshop. “But leaving that aside, the workshop was very well planned and presented; I can’t think of anything to change.”
Feedback and recommendations
When asked if she would recommend the workshop to peers, Ann responded enthusiastically. “Definitely, we all need new options to address the challenges of teaching in the post-Covid world, and TBL is a useful approach to enhancing student engagement, with or without integration with assessment. And Stuart is an engaging presenter whose experience with TBL shines through his material.”
In conclusion, the Team-Based Learning workshop provided attendees with valuable insights and practical tools for enhancing teaching methods. It demonstrated the potential of TBL to create a more interactive and collaborative learning environment.
Fionna Hennig is the team leader Professional Learning in the Centre for Learning and Teaching.
