Methodology
Results and Discussion
the correct answers to the MCQs ; this aids student engagement and provides independence from the instructor . Some of the benefits of TBL , beyond its immediate effect in learning of a specific subject , are found in the development of transferable skills including communication , teamwork , collaboration , critical analysis and problem solving .
The Covid19 pandemic disrupted the education of over 1.7 billion students worldwide , forcing teachers to adapt their classes to remote learning quickly , without much choice or preparation ; whilst distance learning has been happening for a very long time , the scale at which it was now needed and the motivation of students was quite significantly different – learners did not choose this method of learning , impacting self-motivation ( Dietrich et al ., 2020 ; dos Santos Belmonte et al ., 2022 ).
When faced with a forced move online for the 2020 / 21 academic year , with only laboratory sessions taking place in person for the chemistry and medicinal chemistry undergraduate programmes at Keele , we wanted to encourage active learning and peer discussions . Over the last seven years , in Chemistry at Keele we had adapted and incorporated TBL throughout the curriculum , from foundation year through to masters level , from organic to physical chemistry ( Capel et al . 2021 ), thus we naturally focused on TBL as a remote active learning method .
TBL was adapted to a virtual environment , using MS Teams as a platform . The individual MCQs in the iRAT were done prior to sessions through various online forms ( e . g . KLE tests , MS Forms ) and an online scratchcard was developed for the tRAT ; the online scratchcard ( essentially a website ) was embedded on MS Teams , allowing the teams to choose answers for the MCQs and obtain instantaneous feedback , analogous to the traditional paper-based cards ( further descriptions have been presented by Capel et al . 2022 ). Each team was assigned a specific Teams channel with the embedded scratchcard and a shared PowerPoint file , which was used to work together on the application activities . The facilitator had view of all channels , thus could easily monitor each team ’ s progress on the tRAT and application activities , providing guidance or joining discussions as needed .
The current study describes staff and student perspectives of online team based learning in the 2020 / 2021 academic year and makes some recommendations regarding active online learning strategies .
Methodology
A favourable ethical opinion was obtained from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences Student Project Ethics Committee ( SCPS SPEC ) for this study , which was developed as Mary Richardson ’ s MChem research project , supervised by Daniela Plana .
Students ’ perception of team based learning , and particularly online TBL , were probed using an anonymous online questionnaire distributed to Keele undergraduate chemistry and medicinal chemistry students in years 1 through 3 ( FHEQ Levels 4-6 ) in the 2020 / 21 academic year . 33 responses were obtained of approximately 165 possible participants (~ 20 %).
The questionnaires ( see below ) consisted mainly of closed questions ( both Likert scale and yes / no questions ), but included some open-ended questions that allowed students to comment on their overall experience of online TBL , of working within their teams and ( if applicable ) provide a comparison between in-person and online TBL . As experience of online TBL would likely be impacted by whether students had previous experience of the method in person , data analysis considered previous experience of in-person TBL as a key element , over other standard distinctions such as year of study ; whilst all chemistry and medicinal chemistry students in Year 2 and 3 would have experienced TBL in person previously , Year 1 students would have had variable experience : most would not have come across it , but a not-insignificant portion of the cohort would have used it , through chemistry modules in Foundation Year at Keele .
Staff views were gathered through five semi-structured online interviews on MS Teams and pseudonyms were used through analysis to maintain anonymity ; staff interviewed all facilitated TBL sessions in the Keele chemistry and medicinal chemistry programmes in the 2020 / 21 academic year .
Questionnaires and interviews were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods , the latter based on thematic analysis initially performed by Mary Richardson and independently validated by Daniela Plana .
Results and Discussion
To obtain a general idea of student perceptions of online TBL , we initially asked about their enjoyment of the sessions and how useful they found them . Interestingly , as seen in Figure 1 , whilst
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