Challenges of implementing TBL in online platforms
Team set up and scheduling : Although most teams worked together successfully, we encountered two major challenges when trying to set up teams and maintaining communication among team members. First, we observed that long enrollment and course drop periods were detrimental when trying to establish team rapport early in the semester. However, many students used the enrollment period to determine if they were to stay in a course or not, creating a lot of flux in the student roster and any teams established during this time. Furthermore, those students that were committed to the class but that were part of a team with a changing membership seemed unlikely to create strong team rapport later in the term. We opted to create teams with at least four members to allow for students dropping the class during the first three weeks of the term. Second, several teams had challenges communicating or finding a time to schedule weekly meetings. This was especially problematic for teams when students had full- or part-time jobs in addition to a full course-load. We found that determining weekly availability when building teams and proving scheduling tools (e.g. online polls) were essential for the long term success of the team. Going forward we are requiring the teams to determine two, hour long, weekly meeting times that they will commit to for the whole term.
Methodological and Technical Challenges : Our class was developed using a Universal Designed for Learning, providing learning opportunities for students across different media and activities. We used several online technologies to implement such activities. However, the use of multiple tools, increases the likelihood of methodological and technical issues, and some of the tools can also be costly. Our first challenge was to familiarize the students with all the tools without making the course overwhelming. Students found the first week of our course confusing given the large number of small assignments. There was a new course structure to learn in addition to several online tools. We provided detailed instructor guidance during the first two weeks of the course and explained how the different assignments translated to the different components of a face-to-face course. We also provided different venues to reach out to instructors: weekly online office hours, email, and Slack messaging. We also sent reminders on the days when assignments were due and checked in on students frequently to ensure they were working on their tasks. In a large class this can be overwhelming for one instructor so we enlist the help of our graduate student TAs in tracking student progress.
Our second challenge was to synchronize all of the platforms to work seamlessly. Canvas Course Management System and other similar platforms provide the ability to use external tools to engage the students. However, some of the external tools do not necessarily interface with Canvas seamlessly. We had several issues with internet browsers disabling score transfers from external tools to Canvas gradebook, software upgrades removing important features for our assignments, or lack of features in Canvas to allow easy use of the team option with an external tool. Instructors should be aware that a portion of the teaching time will be used troubleshooting and minimizing these technological issues.