Impacts of Intentional Team Formation on Learning in Online and Face-to-Face Environments

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of intentional team formation and class format on student learning outcomes in a team-based learning agricultural statistics class. From 2019 to 2021, students (n = 124) were sorted into teams based on Clifton’s strengths and demographic attributes. So-called “diverse” teams have all strengths represented in addition to having at least one historically under-represented minority (URM) and at least two genders; “not-diverse” teams were missing representation from each strength, URM, and/or gender. The class was taught using team-based learning with face-to-face and online team learning sections. In these teaching paradigms, the lectures were viewed asynchronously, whereas team-learning was facilitated in a face-to-face setting or in an online zoom meeting. A difference-in-difference approach elicited differences in peer evaluation, team satisfaction, and grades based on the team formation treatment, the class format treatment, and the simultaneous team formation and class format treatments. The results of the study suggest that intentional team formation has little impact on most metrics; however, diverse teams do have lower team-learning scores and perceived team performance. The class-format has a large impact on almost all metrics implying that instructors should take more time considering class format rather than group composition in team-based learning.