Team-Based Learning (TBL)

Team-Based Learning isn’t just another name for group learning and how to do group work. Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a well-researched and documented process for structuring learning experiences for students in both f2f and online environments. If you are new to TBL or need a refresher, check out the following “get-started” materials. Team-Based Learning is a unique form of small group learning that is a version of a ‘flipped classroom’ with a specific set of structures to design your entire course. TBL is about student teams making decisions about concepts and problems and then publicly committing to those decisions and getting focused feedback.

Essentials of TBL

• Getting Started in Team-Based Learning https://teambasedlearning.site-ym.com/page/started
• What is TBL? UBC Webpage
• Compact Introduction to Team-Based Learning by B. Roberson and L. Michaelsen – Link
• Introduction to TBL by Jim Sibley https://cdn.ymaws.com/teambasedlearning.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/Docs/TBL-handout_February_2014_le.pdf
• Article about Jonelle Knowles (VIU instructor) who used team-based learning in her hospitality class – Webpage
• Video that explains TBL in 12 minutes (what it is and why it is so powerful)

Team-Based Learning from Center for Teaching and Learning on Vimeo.

Some of the key authors and researchers in TBL have been experimenting and implementing TBL in a digital environment. Here is a collection of the key sites to explore.

Jim Sibley

Retired Engineering Professor and Director of the Centre for Instructional Support in the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC who facilitated Team-Based Learning Workshop at NIC in late June, 2017, has wrote a and numerous articles on team-based learning and has been supporting faculty for decades about how to do TBL

• Website: https://learntbl.ca/
• What is TBL? https://learntbl.ca/what-is-tbl/
• TBL Online: Some Ideas from Jim https://learntbl.ca/tbl-online/ – with accordion sections of key information as you scroll down the page you can get a quick overview of how you might do this online

Michele Clark

University of Nevada Associate Professor in Psychosocial Nursing who evaluates the efficacy of team-based learning as a teaching strategy in improving the students’ application of new learning content in solving complex clinical problems

• Michele’s site “Team-Based Learning in an Online Environment” has practical steps and examples for how to do TBL in a both a synchronous and asynchronous environment https://sites.google.com/site/tbladvantageschallenges/welcome-video

Brian O’Dwyer

Former consulting, banking and airline CFO who went to teaching airline management and realized that lectures and classes needed an overhaul – so took the work of Duke Medical School and founded Cognalearn, a company that helps teachers replace lectures with Team-Based Learning and created the cloud software called InteDashboard – lots of other helpful components to this site to doing digital TBL

• Website with ideas and videos about implementing online team-based learning https://www.blog.intedashboard.com/implementing-team-based-learning-on
• Moving Team-Based Learning (TBL) online to a remote setting: Faculty Guide https://www.blog.intedashboard.com/tbl-in-online-modality
• Team-Based Learning in Online Modality – FAQs https://www.blog.intedashboard.com/implementing-team-based-learning-fa

MICHELE CLARK AND BRIAN O’DWYER and many others wrote a white paper which summarizes a lot of good ideas for implementing online TBL

• “Off to On: Best Practices for Online Team-Based Learning” : http://www.teambasedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Off-to-On_OnlineTBL_WhitePaper_ClarkEtal2018_V3.pdf