Purpose of Team-Based Learning
Research has proven that learning collaboratively is more successful than learning individually, leading to greater retention of information, more learner satisfaction, and a more impactful learning experience. Team-based learning can increase the understanding of diverse perspectives, and provide experience for real life social and employment situations. Learners can also discover improved self-esteem, self-management, and leadership skills they didn’t they know they had.
NovoEd gives you three options to engage your learners in collaborative learning: Course-long teams, assignment-long teams, and groups. See below for more information on how to leverage these to enable team-based learning in your NovoEd experience.
Definitions:
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Considerations
- Why use Course-long Teams? (This is the most common)
- Learners can only be a member of one course-long team.
- Teams are best utilized for course-long collaboration around a project or a series of projects which can be submitted by a team member.
- The team discussion feature enables learners to have more intimate discussions with a small group throughout the course.
- Why use Groups? (This can be used by itself or in conjunction with Course-long Teams)
- Learners can join multiple Groups throughout the duration of the course.
- Groups are often used for:
- Affinity Groups
- To give people from similar regions or departments a place to connect
- Networking
- Why use Assignment-long Teams? (This is less common)
- Learners can only be a member of one assignment-long team at a time.
- Bring learners together temporarily to collaborate on a single assignment, and then the team dissolves.
Ways to Incorporate
- Course builder/designer creates a team formation activity on a lesson page. Note The team formation activity must come before the first team assignment in the course.
- Input the details of the team assignment
- Enroll learners to the course
- When the page with the team formation activity is released, assign learners to teams (or make sure the page is released so learners can form their own teams).
Let’s explore the similarities and differences between the most commonly used features: Course-long teams and groups.
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Similarities |
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Course-Long Teams |
Groups |
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Private Workspace |
Both are given a private workspace to chat, upload documents, schedule meetings, and share work |
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Creation of Teams/Groups |
Admins can create Teams/Groups or allow learners to create their own |
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Team/Group Identity |
Teams/Groups can create their own names, picture, and tagline (or admins can do this for them) |
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Facilitation Dashboard |
Team/Group facilitation dashboards can be enabled for admins |
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Admin Menu Alias |
Groups and Teams can be renamed to anything you like |
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Differences |
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Course-Long Teams |
Groups |
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Membership |
Learners can only be members of 1 course-long Team at a time |
Learners can be members of multiple Groups |
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Assignments |
Teams can submit an assignment where all team members receive credit for one submission |
Groups cannot submit assignments |
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Team-based Discussions |
Team-based discussions can be added as an activity that earns points |
Groups discussions occur more organically within the workspace |
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Team Lead Progress Dashboard |
Team leads can use this |
Groups do not have this functionality |
Examples
- Use Affinity groups for learner-formed interest groups
- Use teams for projects for a multi-month project
- Use groups for feedback or discussion by using "share your work" with a team
- Utilize the team facilitation dashboard for insights on how your teams are performing
- If you have multiple facilitators/mentors, assign them to their own team
- Consider creating course-wide team collaboration guidelines