401 – Innovations in Recruitment and Retention for the Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC)
Caroline H. Wilson, Michele Clark
Chapman University, Health Sciences & TBLC Membership Committee Representative and UNLV School of Nursing, Chair of the TBLC Membership Committee

The TBLC membership committee (MC) is crucial in the introduction of educational resources and collaborative possibilities for our members. One important role of this committee is to holistically evaluate the changing and emerging needs of the new and senior membership. This poster will highlight several new and ongoing approaches the MC has executed in the last year to increase membership retention and participation.  One example is the “Mentor Program” that matches TBLC experts with new TBLC members belonging to the TBLC for less than a year.  Another is the “Welcome to the TBLC” quarterly Zoom video-conference which allows new members to become acquainted with each other and ask questions of MC volunteers. The poster will also describe ongoing MC-sponsored resources, like the TBL Communities of Practice, where members discuss best teaching strategies for online TBL or TBL research & scholarship. The MC also helps to organize the TBL newsletter which highlights the successes of our members and provides TBLC updates.  The MC also emphasizes how to discover and use the TBLC website (e.g. resource bank), and this will be stressed in the new member Zoom meetings and newsletter. We will highlight some collaborations with other TBLC committees, such as advertising TBL research webinars and marketing the TBLC.  The poster will allow for interaction and feedback so that meeting attendees can offer suggestions for how the MC can further improve the experience for all current and future TBL members.

402- Flipping student ability differences from a liability to an advantage: A team-based learning approach to introduce computer engineering and problem solving (programming) to freshmen students
Mohamed Selim
Iowa State University

“First-year programming courses have always been a challenge for many students as the course expectation is not only for them to be able to understand programming concepts, but also to produce creative solutions to problems. Moreover, students come from high school with diverse programming backgrounds, i.e., some of them already studied programming and others have no idea what programming is. Team-Based Learning (TBL) seems a natural solution to increase the amount of practice each student will get, and to increase students’ interest and confidence. Creating diverse teams to work on different activities will flip students’ ability differences from liability to advantage and will help students to learn from each other as well as from the course instructor. In this proposed project, our main goal is to minimize the Drop/Withdraw/Fail (DWF) rate of such courses where programming- novice students tend to DWF the course usually based on our experience from previous semesters. A side goal will be conducted to develop the students’ soft skills over the semester. More than 400 students will be impacted by this project from Computer Engineering (CPRE) and Software Engineering (SE) programs.

How to Successfully Execute an Interprofessional Team-Based Learning Faculty Training
Melanie M. Lazarus, MPH | Donna Pattison, PhD | Kathryn Richdale, OD, PhD | Robert Hausmann, EdD | Kay Reeve, DrPH | Lacey Schmidt, PhD | MariVi Tejada-Simon, PhD, University of Houston College of Medicine | University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics | University of Houston College of Optometry | University of Houston College of Education | University of Houston College of Nursing | University of Houston Office of Faculty Engagement and Development | University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Oral Abstract

Faculty development encourages adoption and incorporation of active instructional methodology such as Team-Based Learning (TBL) in modern health professions classrooms. Though founding faculty were experienced educators at the new University of Houston (UH) College of Medicine, few had specific expertise in TBL implementation. Furthermore, TBL was not generally understood or widely used in other UH health professions colleges. To ensure early incorporation of best pedagogical practices into the new medical education curricular design, not only did training in TBL have to occur but the training itself had to be developed. A team with expertise in the scholarship of teaching and learning was assembled with members from all health-related programs and colleges.

To address gaps in TBL knowledge, the UH College of Medicine, in partnership with the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Optometry, Education, Pharmacy, and Nursing, and the Office of Faculty Engagement and Development designed and implemented a four-session faculty development workshop teaching the basics of the TBL instructional method. Topics covered included evidence supporting the use of TBL, implementation of the three phases and six steps of TBL, the use of clinical cases, and how to manage and organize groups. Each session was offered twice in order to accommodate busy faculty schedules.

This presentation describes the methods used to successfully develop and execute an interprofessional TBL faculty development workshop series. Cross-college partnership best practices, content development, and troubleshooting recommendations are provided. In addition, preliminary data and results on attendee self-efficacy for TBL and workshop satisfaction are discussed.

Financial disclaimer: Financial support for 10 lunches per session was provided by the University of Houston Office of Faculty Engagement and Development. No other financial support or grants were used.