Online TBL with Microsoft Teams
Dr Kirsty Flower, a Senior Teaching Fellow on the BSc in Medical Biosciences, discusses her experience of designing and delivering an online team-based learning (TBL) session for Year 1 Statistics students, using Microsoft Teams as the central hub for facilitation and group discussion.
Context
This was a conversion of a face to face session. The session is a consolidation session for students to revise key concepts from the Statistics module before their upcoming summative assessment. It is delivered to students in term 3 after the Easter break.
Students are used to a flipped model of teaching and to working in teams as this methodology is used throughout their degree programme. This was, however, the first time they had done a live, online TBL session and the first time they had used MS Teams for synchronous online group work.
Cohort size
145 students
Session length
3 hours (2 x 90 minutes with 15 minute break in between)
Number of facilitators for live session
Four
The set up
Pre-session content
Students were asked to complete a pre-session e-module before attending the live class. This e-module was created using an authoring tool called Articulate Rise 360 and accessed via Blackboard. If you would like to learn more about the design of the pre-session materials please click here.
The live synchronous session
In the video below Kirsty explains how she delivered the main components of the live session and encouraged group discussion and collaboration that are so important for team-based learning to work.
Summary of session components and tools used
Reflections: part 1
So how did the session go? Watch the video below to learn how Kirsty adapted both her lesson plan and her teaching style to fit the new remote context.
Questions covered in video 1:
- What adaptations (if any) did you make to the session so that it would work in a fully online environment?
- What roles did the facilitators perform during the session?
- Did you need to adjust your teaching style? If so, how?
Reflections: part 2
In the following video Kirsty discusses the key challenges she faced during the session, changes she would make for next time and importantly, the response from students!
Questions covered in video 2:
- What were the main challenges? How did you overcome these?
- What was the feedback from students?
- Would you approach it differently next time? If so, how?
And finally...
Kirsty shares her top tips for teaching live online sessions: