Introduction

In this article we will walk you through the intended purpose of Team Based Learning (TBL).

Team Based Learning is a structured, evidence-based pedagogy that moves students from individual preparation to team-based problem solving. A well-run TBL sequence gives students immediate, actionable feedback on their understanding and gives teams practice at reasoning together instead of deferring to whoever spoke first or most confidently. Research on the method shows the effect is substantial: over 20 years, Michaelsen (1989) found that 99.95% of TBL teams outperformed their own best individual member, by 14% on average.

The Team Based Learning tool is designed to run the readiness-assurance core of TBL — an Individual Readiness Assurance Test (iRAT) followed by a Team Readiness Assurance Test (tRAT) — inside a single, gradeable FeedbackFruits activity.

Here you can find our user guides for Team Based Learning:

• Team Based Learning: For Students

• Team Based Learning: For Teacher (Active Assignment)

• Team Based Learning: For Teacher (Setting-up)

How It Works

Teachers can use this activity in any online classroom setting to check whether students are ready to apply what they've prepared, both on their own and as part of a team.

The teacher titles the activity, optionally adds instructions, and builds one set of multiple-choice questions. That question set is used twice: first for the iRAT, where each student answers individually with no feedback on correctness, and then for the tRAT, where the same questions are answered again as a team using scratch-off, immediate-feedback scoring. Teams must be added before the tRAT opens, either manually or synced from the course's Learning Management System (LMS).

Instructors can track student and team progress throughout the activity, review how individual questions were answered, and export full analytics to a spreadsheet. A grading module can be added on top to turn iRAT and tRAT performance into a final grade, published to the LMS manually or on a set date. 

What Features Can I Use With Tool?

The options available to you will depend on your contract with us - these are the general features that can be added to this tool:

Highlighted Features

Individual + Team Readiness Assurance (iRAT / tRAT): Students first answer a multiple-choice question set alone, then answer the identical set again as a team, so the activity directly compares individual versus team understanding.

Scratch-off Questions (IF-AT) with decremental scoring: During the tRAT, teams see only whether an answer is correct, not which option is right, and can retry until they find it. Each retry halves the remaining available score, rewarding careful reasoning and giving teams a reason to keep engaging after an initial miss rather than giving up.

Team / Group Sync with LMS: Teams for the tRAT step can be added manually or imported automatically from groups already set up in the course's LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle), removing duplicate setup work.

Export Analytics: All individual and team answer data, including per-question results, can be exported to Excel for further analysis outside the platform.

Benefits of using Team Based Learning

• Surfaces balanced team dynamics - Scratch-off mode interrupts a team after a wrong first answer, creating space for quieter members to be heard instead of letting one confident voice drive the decision.

• Rewards learning from failure - Decremental scoring gives teams a real incentive to keep reasoning through a question after an incorrect attempt, rather than guessing again or moving on.

• Proven performance gains - Michaelsen (1989) found that across 20 years of data, 99.95% of TBL teams outperformed their own best individual member, by 14% on average.

• Streamlined readiness-assurance workflow - Individual and team quizzes, immediate feedback scoring, and grading are all handled inside one activity, with progress and analytics visible from a single dashboard.

Good to Know

• Scratch-off mode can only be switched on or off before any student has started the quiz, and it isn't available if the quiz contains open-ended questions - once a student engages, the setting is locked.

• Teams must be added before the tRAT step is completed; without them, the team step cannot run.

• Grading can be split between the iRAT and tRAT steps by percentage, and the two weightings must add up to 100%.

• Grades can be published to the LMS manually or on an automatically scheduled date.