Tag Archives: TBLC

Is It Time to Rethink Grading?

The Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC) invites all educators to attend our Mid-Year Virtual Forum. Research is showing that traditional grading systems are ineffective when it comes to properly assessing student performance in the classroom. This Virtual Forum aims to take a deep dive into evaluation practices and introduce new methods that better serve both students and educators. We hope you join us next Friday, October 28 from 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM ET as we think again about evaluation in team-based learning. 

Schedule at a glance:

Click on each session title for more information!

Level Up Your Teaching By Joining the TBLC!

Do you know any TBLers who aren’t yet TBLC Members? Here are six reasons they should join TBLC!

  1. Access to the Resource Portal – The TBLC Resource Portal contains member-submitted, peer-reviewed modules to help support your teaching and instruction in a range of disciplines.
  2. Discounted registration for the Annual Meeting and Regional Workshops – Being a TBLC member saves you money when registering for the Annual Meeting or for any Regional Workshops whether virtual, hybrid or in person.
  3. Real-life tips, tricks and best practices for TBL online – TBLC members came together during the crisis of COVID-19 and created a collection of articles, blogs and tips to share the technology or resources they use to make sure the three phases of TBL are present in online modules. These curated collections are available now on the member’s only page here and here.
  4. Access to an extensive bibliography of TBL research – The TBLC maintains a bibliography of TBL research papers that only our members have access to.
  5. Updates with News, resources and information valuable to TBLers – Any time there is new information or news that might interest educators using Team-Based Learning, TBLC will let their members know! 
  6. Monthly Social Hour exclusively for members – We invite you to join us on the second Wednesday of each month for the TBL Social Hour, a virtual round table discussion where you control the conversations. And the best part is these sessions are completely FREE for TBLC members!

Joining TBLC is easy! Visit the TBLC website today at www.teambasedlearning.org and click “Join Now!” under the “Be a Member” heading!

TBLC Levels of Certification

The TBLC now offers a 3-tiered certification process for educators: (1) Fundamentals, (2) Practitioner, and (3) Trainer-Consultant. These are described below. Further information is available at www.teambasedlearning.org and clicking on Resources.

Fundamentals
To obtain the Fundamentals Certification, educators must attend five (5) workshops that are essential to laying the foundation for applying a team-based learning strategy. 

Practitioner
The Practitioner Certification is designed for those who are skilled in the development of TBL modules and experienced in facilitation using the TBL strategy. 

Trainer-Consultant
The Trainer-Consultant Certification is designed for members of the TBLC who have achieved practitioner certification and are now actively mentoring others to develop their own TBL modules.
*It’s highly recommended that you complete the Practitioner Certification prior to beginning the Trainer-Consultant Certification.

For more information on TBL Certification please visit our website.

Will you be attending any Educational Conferences? Tell us!

We’d like to get the word out about Team-Based Learning and about the Collaborative. To do this, we need your help! 

Will you be attending any Education-Based Conferences this year? If you are, please let us know! You can send this information to us via email at support@tblcadmin.org

We’d like to begin exhibiting at these meetings and your information will help us expand our list of current meetings to attend. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please just let us know at support@tblcadmin.org.

Update from the ETBLC – Striving to further develop the TBL framework

For those who missed this article in our most recent newsletter, we would like you to know that the European TBLC members have been expanding the TBLC community in Spain. Three different TBL Masterclasses have been presented throughout Europe. As well, a number of publications, conference presentations and awards have been disseminated highlighting the effectiveness of this teaching practice. We are very excited to report on the work of Oscar Urmeneta who is utilizing TBL as a means to shift lecturing to active learning at Fundación Educación Católica in Spain.

Striving to further develop the TBL framework: the experience at Fundación Educación Católica (FEC)
Oscar Urmeneta, MSc
Fundación Educación Católica, Spain

Fundación Educación Católica (FEC) is a multi-site school federation that brings 21 state-sponsored schools across Spain together, with 1,500 teachers in total. Its renewed Institutional Education Project is strongly committed to a paradigm shift from traditional didactic lecturing to active learning. In the face of the usual failure of Spanish public efforts of school reform to effectively transform classroom teaching practices, FEC has decided to pilot TBL as the key driver for delivering a change in pedagogic culture in Baccalaureate. This crucial decision is the result of a piece of research conducted at the University of Oxford: Driving educational change at school federation level: a case study of Team-Based Learning (see poster). However, adopting this research-based approach to organizational decisions has entailed confronting a high degree of uncertainty as the literature on TBL presents some remarkable limitations.

To read Oscar’s full piece explaining the necessary steps the  Institutional Education Project is taking to assist higher learning institutions in Spain to use TBL as a teaching strategy, click here.

Don’t Miss This Session! Standards Based & Specifications Grading

With the 2019 TBLC Meeting just around the corner, we would like to bring attention to one of our featured workshops: Standards Based and Specifications Grading: Shifting Student Focus from Earning Points to Learning. This session will be presented by Steven Clontz and Drew Lewis from the University of South Alabama. We hope you enjoy this session! 

Title: Standards Based and Specifications Grading: Shifting Student Focus from Earning Points to Learning
Presented by: Drew Lewis – University of South AlabamaDate: Friday, March 15, 2019
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM


Imagine a class in which students ask you to give them another exam; in which students know exactly which skills they have mastered and which they need to practice; in which students walk in to your office and say, “Professor, let me show you I know how to…?” instead of begging for partial credit. This is the environment created by a grading system called Standards Based and Specifications Grading (SBSG). In this workshop, you will be introduced to Standards Based Grading and Specifications Grading and begin incorporating them into your TBL class. We will discuss the behavioral shifts we see in our students in SBSG courses. You will discover how Specifications Grading allows you to eliminate false equivalences created by traditional (weighted average) grading schemes, and keep measures of student learning independent of behavioral incentives (such as readiness assurance tests and peer evaluations). You will also learn how Standards Based Grading inherently produces data measuring how well students are meeting your TBL course’s learning outcomes, which can be used to guide and evaluate future pedagogical innovations in the course. 

If you’d like to register for this workshop but have already registered for the meeting, you may email the TBLC office at support@tblcadmin.org for assistance. You can also change your registration online at www.tblcmeeting.org, selecting “Already Registered?” at the bottom of the page, and entering your email address and password. Didn’t set up a password when you registered? No problem! Simply select the link on that page that says, “Don’t know your password? Click here to reset it.”

How to Connect with the Admin Team

To better support your membership needs, it may be helpful to know the members of the TBLC Admin Team and what they do for the Collaborative.


Julie K. Hewett, CMP, CAE
Collaborative Manager

 Julie has been supporting TBLC for over 9 years in many different ways. Currently, she is responsible for Board and Committee support and conference management. Julie will continue to oversee the rest of the management team to support the overall needs of the Collaborative. 

Danielle Inscoe, QAS
Managing Director

Danielle’s role with TBLC will be as the first point of member contact whether by phone or email. She will be helping to manage the day-to-day operations of the Collaborative and will be available to answer questions regarding memberships and upcoming Collaborative activities. 

Cassie Chinn, MAJ, QAS
Communications Director

Cassie serves TBLC as the liaison of communications between and among the membership. She can be found serving the Membership and Website committees, working on the daily email communications and working on the quarterly newsletter. She helps create posts to get the word out about what goes on within the organization. Cassie also ensures the website for TBLC is always up to date while also helping get new content posted as it becomes available.

Amoritia Strogen-Hewett, QAS
Conference Logistics

Amoritia manages the bulk of conference as well as on-site logistics. Although Amoritia is not involved with TBLC on a daily basis, she is always ready and willing to help as needed and may be seen at the annual meeting or upcoming workshops.

How to Connect with the Team
By mail:
TBLC
c/o JulNet Solutions, LLC
1000 5th Avenue
Suite 100
Huntington, WV 25701
Phone: 304-208-8011
Fax: 304-523-9701

Email:
Julie Hewett: julie@tblcadmin.org
Danielle Inscoe: danielle@tblcadmin.org
Cassie Chinn: cassie@tblcadmin.org
Amoritia Strogen-Hewett: amoritia@tblcadmin.org
When in doubt: support@tblcadmin.org

Spots Still Available for the FREE TBLC 2019 Preview Webinar

TBLC 19 Banner

There is still availability to view the FREE orientation webinar for the 18th Annual TBLC Meeting on Thursday, January 10. This webinar is your sneak peek into the preconference workshops, keynote speakers and workshops that make the TBLC annual meeting the can’t-miss team-based learning event of the year! Join our panelists, Dr. Peter Balan and Dr. Jennifer Styron in an enriching and engaging look into the upcoming meeting in Tampa, Florida!


Panelists: Peter Balan, University of South Australia MGN School and Jennifer Styron, Eastern Virginia Medical School


Register here for the TBLC webinar at 12:00pm ET on Thursday, January 10 for an hour-long preview of the meeting, including an orientation to the workshops and sessions, speakers and poster presentations that round out our robust conference. Take an in-depth look at the content offered in each workshop as well as the content’s interconnectedness across various disciplines. Peter and Jennifer will show you why the TBLC annual meeting can benefit any educator who wants to meet and interact with others who are serious about developing their knowledge of TBL and why the session offerings are essential for every serious TBL instructor.
We will also have time for a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask questions about the conference.


Remember to register for the conference and make your hotel arrangements at www.tblcmeeting.org. The deadline for Early Bird registrations is 15 January.

PREVIEW THE 2019 ANNUAL CONFERENCE!

TBLC 19 Banner

Don’t miss the FREE orientation webinar for the 18th Annual TBLC Meeting on Thursday, January 10. This webinar is your sneak peak into the preconference workshops, keynote speakers and workshops that make the TBLC annual meeting the can’t-miss team-based learning event of the year! Join our panelists, Dr. Peter Balan and Dr. Jennifer Styron in an enriching and engaging look into the upcoming meeting in Tampa, Florida!

Panelists: Peter Balan, University of South Australia MGN School and Jennifer Styron, Eastern Virginia Medical School

Register here for the TBLC webinar at 12:00pm ET on Thursday, January 10 for an hour-long preview of the meeting, including an orientation to the workshops and sessions, speakers and poster presentations that round out our robust conference. Take an in-depth look at the content offered in each workshop as well as the content’s interconnectedness across various disciplines. Peter and Jennifer will show you why the TBLC annual meeting can benefit any educator who wants to meet and interact with others who are serious about developing their knowledge of TBL and why the session offerings are essential for every serious TBL instructor.

We will also have time for a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask questions about the conference.

Remember to register for the conference and make your hotel arrangements at www.tblcmeeting.org. The deadline for Early Bird registrations is 15 January.