Over a cup of coffee: June 23rd edition

The IDD blog helps us integrate Wikis in our classroom.

The University Center for Writing-based Learning continues to produce a number of Podcasts. Episodes 1 and 2 are out now with a third on the way!

The Teaching Professor Blog, written by Maryellen Weimer co-author of numerous teaching and learning books, provides us with some simple student self-assessment techniques, and asks us to use the summer to continue to work on pedagogical scholarship.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed. gives more testimony towards the need for an integrated curriculum/program that prepares our students to be agents of change for social justice and responsibility.

Over a cup of coffee: June 17th edition

Start preparing your fall quarter courses by reading this great overview of course planning and design from the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning.

The DePaul IDD Blog describes when to use VoiceThread or Camtasia, two online teaching tools that allow you to share media.

Tomorrow's Professor Blog helps us consider assessing what our students understand and what we can do about improving student learning.

A MERLOT resources reminds us of Learning Theories, Pedagogic Strategies and Instructional Design.

Over a cup of coffee: June 9th edition

Instructional Design and Development (IDD) describes tools for staying current in your field.

Robert J. Sternberg of Tufts University presents us with a new model for teaching ethical behavior.

An oldie but a goodie, Randy Bass asks us, "The Scholarship of Teaching: What’s the Problem?"

Thinking about incorporating group work in your next class? Read a few tips for dealing with students who hate working in groups.

Over a cup of coffee: June 2nd edition

DePaul University Libraries needs your help with faculty focus groups June 16th-17th.

Public speaking means holding and audience's attention. Don't forget that attention will come in waves, present with that in mind.

Apple Educational Exchange offers ideas for Challenge-based learning that could be adapted for Higher Ed.

TED talks continue to ask big questions. Liz Coleman revisits the idea of cross-disciplinary education that addresses the problems of our world.

Team-based Learning

A couple of weeks ago the New York Times posted a special report on a team-based learning program at Duke-N.U.S. Graduate Medical School in Singapore.

What is team-based learning (TBL)?  Michaelsen, Knight, and Fink (2004) define TBL as "a particular instructional strategy, not a series of independent small-group activities ... team-based learning revolves around the development of teams, a kind of social unit that is quite distinct from groups" (p. 8). Typically a team-based learning course is restructured into units that involve three phases:

1. Preparation in which all readings are completed and pre-requisite knowledge is
attained
2. Application in which content is used to solve common problems
3. Assessment phase in which a final problem is given to solve as a team
(Michaelsen et al., p. 9-11)

Duke-N.U.S. is employing TBL to give students increased guided hands-on time in the classroom.  They use pre-recorded lectures to impart knowledge about course concepts and class time to develop a deeper understanding and knowledge of the concepts.

A discussion of where the program is going and ongoing research they are conducting was posted by Dr. Sandy Cook, Associate Dean of the Duke-N.U.S. Graduate Medical School Singapore from the TEAMLEARNING archives.

To learn more about Team-based learning and about how to design a course with TBL in mind, visit the course design guide at the University of British Columbia.

---

References:

Michaelsen A. L., Knight A.B., Fink, L.D. (Eds.). (2004). Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.