Using Team-Based Learning to Support Individual Assignments

and Gather Peer Review Feedback in Large First Year Classes

Dr. Douglas G Carrie

BUSINESS 101 and 102Business and Enterprise 1 and 2

The central goal of these courses is to help students understand what makes a business successful, including how each of the key functions of a business contributes to its survival and performance.

Content Process Inspiration

BUSINESS 101Content

Module 1: Business Matters– Why does business matter?– How can you develop a business mindset?– How can you build your business career?

 Module 2: Creating and Capturing Value

– What is a viable business model?– What is entrepreneurship and innovation?– How should businesses behave?

 Module 3: Leading and Organising

– What roles do managers play?– What makes an effective leader?– What are the qualities of effective teams?

BUSINESS 102

Module 4: Understanding the Business Context– What should you understand about the business

environment?– What should you understand about competitors?– What should you understand about customers?

 

Module 5: Meeting the Market– What makes up the marketing offer?– How do relationships matter?– How do businesses and customers co-create value?

 

Module 6: Managing Operations and People– How do businesses manage their operations?– What motivates employees?– How can businesses develop their workforce?

Content

• Critical thinking• Working in teams• Business communication skills• Information literacy skills

Process

• Why does business matter?• Why is the study of business important?• What can you do to make the most out

of your years at University?• How can you make more informed

choices about degrees/majors?

Inspiration

Team-Based Learning

Teams

• 2200 students• Divided into 22 streams of approx 100 students• Each stream is divided into teams of 7

TBL Laboratory

• A dedicated space with tables that seat eight, allowing the staff facilitator to sit and engage with each team of seven students

• The room is designed to allow for effective intra-team and inter-team communication and interactivity

The Individual Assignments

• Four assignment “cycles” with two individual written assignments in each course

• Essays in BUSINESS 101 followed by Business Reports in BUSINESS 102

(A) Using TBL to Support the Assignments

• Team-based learning application exercises are sprinkled throughout each course to support the assignment writing process and the upcoming peer review process

• There are application exercises related to essay and report writing, academic referencing, information literacy, giving and receiving feedback, etc.

• A comprehensive marking rubric is provided to students at the start of each course

Example

Engaging with the marking rubric:• Sample assignments on a different topic• All teams in a stream given the same set of three

sample assignments• Using the grading rubric, the team reads and ranks

the assignments, determines a grade, a provides the most compelling reason why

• Teams simultaneously report using their voting cards (A, B, C or D)

(B) Taking advantage of team structures when providing feedback and marking the assignments

• Students receive multiple sets of feedback on their assignment, including feedback from an in-class team peer review process

Submitting their assignments

• This is a largely paperless system• Students submit their assignments in the system

via email

Feedback Loop 1

• All members of a particular team are electronically allocated an identical set of seven assignments from other students elsewhere in the course

• An individual peer review process takes place where each student must use the assignment marking rubric to peer review these seven assignments, plus their own assignment

Feedback Loop 2

Students assess the quality of the feedback that they have received from other students

Feedback Loop 3

Teams moderate and come to a group peer review consensus on each assignment – they provide comments and recommend (but do not determine) a mark

Feedback Loop 4:

Staff markers review and consolidate all of the previous feedback, add value through further comments, and determine the final marks

• This process allows students and staff to co-create value in the form of far more comprehensive feedback than one would normally see with traditional University assignment marking processes

• This process also helps students to develop skills in receiving and engaging with feedback, especially when there are alternate views on their work

• We have been really pleased with how the team-based learning environment has contributed to the success of what remains an individual assignment

Reflections

• Misperceptions that students were grading rather than reviewing: Solution in 2012 is to separate the peer review (by students) and marking (by staff) processes

• Assignment workload issues relative to other first year courses: Solution in 2012 is to have a single assignment in each course (rather than two)

Challenges