Abstract

Team-based Learning (TBL) offers students the opportunity to develop interpersonal communication skills and collective critical thinking. The Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) Teamwork VALUE rubric is commonly used to assess individual teamwork attributes in the traditional (face-to-face) setting. However, online learning has become an increasingly popular platform of education, and has unique complexities, like proximity of students and the difference in communication styles that may be used. These unique complexities could influence the skill sets that are needed or attributes that are valued among team members in in the online environment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to: 1. Identify valued teamwork performance attributes of students in a TBL online course, 2. Create a rubric to assess individual teamwork performance in online higher education, and 3. Compare and contrast identified attributes to those valued in the traditional setting.

Graduate students enrolled in an online clinical nutrition course were each assigned to a permanent team (4-5 students/team, 5 teams total). Each team completed a course project over a 6-week period that accounted for 30% of course grade. The project included weekly team assignments in which the instructor provided feedback. Twice during the semester each student completed a peer evaluation for each team member. Using NVivo software, the narrative feedback that was used to justify assigned team member scores, were coded by theme. Themes were organized into a rubric and direct student quotes were used to define performance levels for each theme.

Students participating in an online TBL project identified attitude, critical thinking, presence, project management and respect for others as ideal attributes in a team member. Further, major differences in ideal attributes were identified when compared to the Teamwork VALUE rubric used in face-to-face courses, which could be due to the complexities specific to online learning.

Understanding the ideal performance attributes of a team member within an online TBL course will allow instructors to develop and implement the teaching practices that support effective team dynamics and provide students the necessary resources to improve their teamwork skills and learning in an online team environment.

Objectives

• Identify ideal team member attributes described by graduate students in TBL online course.
• Compare and contrast ideal team member attributes of team members in online versus face-to-face courses.
• Apply findings to improve online TBL course development and teaching practices.

Presenter

Elizabeth Kroeger, UAB Nutrition Sciences
Elizabeth Kroeger, MS, RDN, PhD student in Department of Nutrition Sciences at UAB has taught several online graduate courses that use team-based learning and has completed extensive teaching training through the UAB Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning. Ms. Kroeger has served as the program manager for two grant-funded projects centered around qualitative assessment of student learning from team-based project participation.