Student preparation time for traditional lecture versus team-based learning in a pharmacotherapy course

Determine how much time students spent preparing for traditional lecture versus team-based learning (TBL) for a pharmacotherapy course and determine if time spent in each pedagogy was within stated expectations for the course.

Instructors used a combination of traditional lecture and TBL to deliver material. Before each lecture, instructors recorded the amount of time students spent preparing for each method using a one-question clicker-response survey.

Instructors delivered 16 hours of TBL, 32 hours of traditional lecture, and eight hours of a mix of TBL and traditional lecture. The median of students completing the survey each week was 89. A large percentage of the class (40.9%) did not prepare for traditional lecture while only 3.4% did not prepare for TBL. About 61% of students spent between 30 min and two hours preparing for a two-hour TBL session and only 10% spent more than three hours preparing.

Results of this project show students spend little time preparing for traditional lectures without in-class accountability, which may give students the perception that TBL requires too much preparation time.