Tag Archives: Meeting

Featured Module – Global Health Microbiology

Global Health Microbiology

Authors: Christopher Burns, PhD and Joanna Shisler, PhD

This team-based learning (TBL) module addresses basic strategies to control or eliminate infectious disease, focusing on parasites as the main example. Students develop an understanding of parasite life-cycles in the context of solving real-world problems in global health. This includes basic knowledge about the disease, characteristics, habitat and transmission, pathogenesis, laboratory diagnosis, prevention, life cycle and any hosts or vectors, number and location of infected population, and eradication or control strategies.

An emphasis on neglected tropical diseases provides complex problems with regional and societal facets, and economic and political challenges, in addition to basic and clinical science content. Application exercise problems address major factors in disease elimination including vaccination, physical barriers, targeting vectors, effectiveness of treatment, role of different hosts, and detection of infected individuals.

Organisms/diseases covered include Plasmodium (malaria), Dracunculus (Guinea worm), Onchocerca (river blindness), Wuchereria (lymphatic filarisis), and poliovirus (polio), and touch on measles and smallpox as examples of possible recurrence.


This module and many more can be found in the TBLC Resource Bank. Click here to log in to the Member’s Site.

Did you know that you can submit your own module to be peer reviewed by fellow TBLC members and included in the TBLC Resource Bank? Click here to download the Resource Bank submission form and e-mail it to resources@tblcadmin.org.

TBLC – Fundamentals Certificate Information

As you may recall, the TBLC offered a Fundamentals Track Certificate at the 2018 Meeting in San Diego, California. If you attended the meeting, completed the five fundamentals workshops for the certificate, and did not receive your certificate, please let us know via email at support@tblcadmin.org so that we can re-send it to you.

If you weren’t aware of the Fundamentals Certificate, TBLC will be offering it again at the 2019 Meeting in Tampa, Florida! The Certificate includes the following workshops:

1. Fundamental Principles and Practices of TBL
2. Creating an Effective TBL Module
3. Evaluating Multiple Choice Questions for Readiness Assurance Tests and Application Activities
4. Improving Facilitation Skills for a TBL Classroom
5. Peer Feedback and Evaluation

Registration Now Open – TBLC Regional Workshop in Cleveland

18-Workshop-Cleveland

Registration is Now Open!

The Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC) is offering a unique opportunity to experience team-based learning at the 2018 regional workshop in Cleveland, OH on Saturday, September 15, 2018.

This all day session will offer 2 workshops: Fundamental Principles and Practices of TBL & Creating an Effective TBL Module. These workshops will be led by TBLC’s Certified Trainer-Consultants Smita Krishnamurthy and Liz Winter. You won’t want to miss these essential TBL courses that, by the end of the day, will have you ready to take team-based learning back to your classroom.

Call for TBLC 2019 Workshop Abstracts – Deadline July 15

TBLC 19 Banner

The Team Based Learning Collaborative extends a warm welcome to join them for their 18th annual meeting in Tampa, FL, March 14-16, 2019 at the Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel.

The TBLC Program Committee seeks abstracts for workshops that will engage and educate our attendees, typically by using TBL to deliver the workshop. Please align your submission to one of the three tracks listed below.

Workshop tracks:

  • Fundamentals Track
    Learners will acquire knowledge and skills for implementation of effective TBL.
    Target audience: educators with less than 3 years of experience using TBL or educators who want to become more effective in practicing the essentials of TBL.
  • Innovations & Applications Track
    Learners will acquire knowledge and skills for using TBL in specific educational settings or in a specific academic discipline. Creative innovations that remain consistent with TBL principles are encouraged.
    Target audience: educators who are currently using TBL and who desire to improve their practice by interacting with those in similar educational roles, disciplines, or settings.
  • Scholarship & Research Track
    Learners will acquire knowledge and skills to critically evaluate the educational process and outcomes of TBL. Workshops emphasizing either qualitative or quantitative research methods are preferred.
    Target audience: educators who want to study the TBL process and communicate findings in a scholarly manner, e.g. peer-reviewed publications.

Requirements to be included in the Workshop Proposal:

  1. Title of workshop
  2. Organizer and co-leaders: for each person who will facilitate the workshop, submit name, degree, institution, email, phone, and qualifications for leading the workshop. Designate one person to communicate with the program committee. NOTE: Only registered meeting participants will be listed within the final Conference Program.
  3. Purpose and rationale of the workshop (NOTE: If the proposal is for fundamentals track, please submit learners’ evaluations of a previous workshop you have done on this topic.).
  4. Specific learning objectives of the workshop (behavioral outcomes).
  5. Intended audience.
  6. Format: The method that leaders will use during the workshop; include description of how essential elements of TBL will be incorporated.
  7. Detailed schedule of workshop activities, with each segment in minutes, including breaks (assume total duration of 120 minutes).
  8. Advance assignments for participants (optional).
  9. Audio-visual requirements: provide a list. NOTE: The Admin Planning Team will confirm whether A-V requests can be fulfilled.
  10. Number of participants: provide the maximum number you will accept

Proposals are to be submitted online using the online submission form found here by July 15, 2018. Please note that there will be a separate call for poster submissions later this year.

If you have any questions or problems with your workshop submission, please send them to Danielle Inscoe at danielle@tblcadmin.org.

Thank you,
Jennifer Styron
2019 Program Committee Chair

ETBLC to Present Three Masterclass Workshops at 2018 Active Learning Conference

The 2nd Active Learning Conference and Masterclass will be held June 4-5, 2018, at the University of Sessex in Brighton, UK. Members of the ETBLC will present three sessions throughout the event on June 4.

Masterclass 1 – Introduction to Team-Based Learning
Dr Graeme Jones, Keele University; Uwe Richter, Anglia Ruskin University

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a special form of active and collaborative learning that uses a special sequence of individual work, group work and immediate feedback to create a motivational framework in which students increasingly hold each other accountable for coming to class prepared and contributing to discussion.

This workshop aims to introduce participants to TBL by experiencing it as a student would. TBL is a learner-centred ‘flipped’ learning and teaching strategy designed to engage students through a process of preparation, assessment and application of knowledge. It shifts the focus of classroom time from conveying course concepts by the instructor to the application of course concepts by student learning teams.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the essential elements that make up Team-Based Learning
  • Describe the benefits and challenges of using TBL

This workshop will be delivered using a Team-Based Learning (TBL) approach.

Masterclass 2 – Team-Based Learning: Developing Effective Facilitation Skills and Best Practices for Using Peer Evaluation to Optimise Active and Collaborative Learning
Dr Geeta Hitch, University of Sussex; Dr Shihab Kogali, University of Dundee; Professor Danny Mclaughlin, Newcastle University

Weimer (2002) describes how the effectiveness of using active, collaborative and enquiry-based approaches depends on the ability of academics to be able to ‘step aside and let students take the lead.’ This change often requires a shift in our thinking as academics from delivering ‘teacher-centred content’ to facilitating ‘student centred-learning. Peer evaluation is often used in collaborative learning to incentivise team-effort and reduce the risk of inequity in the individual contributions to group work.

This workshop focuses on sharing experiences and best practices for facilitating active and collaborative learning and the effective use of peer evaluation in to incentivise student engagement.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Apply best practice for facilitating active and collaborative learning classes
  • Develop and implement a peer evaluation tool to incentivise student engagement

This workshop will be delivered using a Team-Based Learning (TBL) approach.

Weimer, M. (2002) Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Masterclass 3 – Overcoming the Challenges of Active and Collaborative Learning – Advanced Practices in using Team-Based Learning
Alison Hartley, University of Bradford; Paul McDermott, University of East Anglia

Moving to a student-centred approach using active and collaborative learning is not without its challenges.

This workshop focuses on the principles of effective task design in team-based active and collaborative learning and introduces the use of a tool for peer reviewing TBL resources

By the end of the workshop you will be able to:

  • Explain the principles of effective task design for use in the TBL classroom
  • Critically review TBL resources and suggest improvements
  • Suggest strategies for overcoming the challenges of using active and collaborative learning

This workshop will be delivered using the principles of Team-Based Learning (TBL) and it is expected that participants have some knowledge of TBL.

For more information about the Active Learning Conference and registration for this event, please visit the event web site here.

TBLC 2018 – Pre-Conference Workshop Information

The 2018 Annual TBLC Meeting will be taking place from March 1 through March 3, 2018. Thursday, March 1 is a pre-conference workshop day, and we would like to highlight some of the sessions for you.

TBL 101
Presented by Annetta Dolowitz, Sarah Lerchenfeldt, and Elizabeth Oldland

This is the single best introduction to TBL, conducted in a TBL format. Participants must prepare ahead, take an iRAT, and engage actively with their assigned team members. The structure, process, and essential characteristics of an effective TBL module are emphasized.

By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the key components of a successful TBL module.
  • Outline how they would construct a TBL module from a set of objectives.
  • Describe how they might convert a course/lecture they already teach into a TBL module.
  • Illustrate how to transform a small group into a productive learning team.

Creating an Effective TBL Module
Presented by Lorrie Comeford and Michelle Farland

This workshop is for instructors who have completed an introductory workshop Team-Based Learning, or who have experience with using TBL in the classroom. Team-Based Learning modules can sink or swim based on the way the components of the module fit together, therefore a TBL module requires careful planning and alignment of the learning objectives, readiness assurance process, and team application exercises. This workshop will emphasize backward design for writing effective TBL modules. The workshop will address each aspect of a TBL module: high quality learning objectives; pre-class preparation and the readiness assurance process; and the 4-S principles for designing team applications. Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be prepared to design their own TBL module.

By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Define the elements of a good “higher order” learning objective.
  • Identify common flaws in poorly written multiple choice questions.
  • Identify how to use the 4-S’s in the design of team application exercises in different formats (e.g. multiple choice questions, gallery walk).
  • Use backward design to align team application questions to the readiness assurance process, the advance preparation assignment, and learning objectives.

Please note that TBL 101 and Creating an Effective Module have an additional fee of $85 each.

This year, we will also be offering a “Research Development Day” option during the pre-conference day to be presented by members of the TBLC Research and Scholarship Committees. This track of workshops will include information on scholarship and research, mini workshops on “Turning Teaching into Educational Scholarship” and “From Research Idea to Research Question,” as well as information on improving research proposals and help putting together research collaboration groups.

Registration is set to open soon, so be sure to keep an eye on your email! We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!