Field Trial

Before the field trial, and even before preparing it in detail, think about the following questions and write down some thoughts. They will help you later during your reflection.

What do you think are things that will be easy to achieve?

I contrast, what do you think are possible challenges?

Ideally, you develop the TBL unit with the backwards design method introduced in the preparation, but the field trial can also work even if you don't manage a perfect alignment between learning goals, team activity, RAT and preparation material. Though I encourage you to make a real effort for the field trial, here is a list of potential shortcuts:

If you don't assign students into teams before class, you can also assign random teams in class right before the RAT. Just make sure that students don't choose teams on their own.
In case you don't have the possibility to give students preparation material, make the RAT about concepts you covered in the course before.
You can do the session in a normal auditorium. A special group room is convenient but not necessary for this trial.

The field trial should consist of at least a RAT and a team activity, to give you enough material for your own reflection after the field trial.

Preparing the RAT

Developing the Questions

Develop 5 to 10 multiple-choice questions. One answer alternative counts as correct. Following my definition, this is what you consider the best of all answer alternatives, which means that the other alternatives (also called distractors) don't have to be false, they are just less good of an answer. Make sure to explain this to your students.

Printing the RAT

For this single RAT you probably don't need any specific software and can just write it in Word or another program. In case you have a very large class and want the question shuffling and statistics, you are welcome to use the Teampy program. This program requires that you are familiar with running a program from the command line.

For the individual RAT, just print a copy for each student with the answer alternatives shuffled. Since cheating probably won't be a problem, all students can receive the exact same test.

For the team RAT you need to ensure that students receive the proper answer while they solve the quiz, at their own speed. For this you can use the Nøtteknekker App on iPhone.

Preparing the Team Activity

For the team activity, you are more free in the structure and content, which can also be challenging.

Not all activities have to fulfill all the 4-S properties.
Remember there does not need to be a single right answer, either.
Sometimes it helps to think of the team activity as a preparation for a class discussion, meaning that students don't need to learn everything within that activity, but that you can switch to other learning activities afterwards.
You can also see a team activity as an extended RAT, with more involved multiple-choice questions that may require work to come to a conclusion.

During the RAT

Give the students between 1 and 2 minutes per question for the individual RAT. For 10 questions, 12 to 15 minutes are probably a good estimate.
If you want, show a slide with a timer as guidance for the students. You can download timers to include in your presentation slides from https://github.com/falkr/timers.
Make sure the class is silent during the individual test.
Before starting the team test, collect all the individual answers. Students should not just compare their answers, but read the test again with fresh eyes together.
Give the students a few minutes more for the team test to foster discussion, for instance 20 to 25 minutes.
During the team test, walk between the teams and listen to what the students say and how they explain answer alternatives to each other. It's okay to make some clarifying comments, but try to be as silent as possible.

After the Field Trial

Fill out the Word document we provide as starting point for your final reflection.