Undergraduate Creative Multimedia Design Students’ Perceptions of Online Team-Based Learning

Abstract

With higher learning institutions shifting to an online mode of instruction since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have found it challenging to engage students through video conferencing tools whilst students struggle to concentrate and feel a sense of disconnect due to lack of social interaction in the online class. This is prevalent in design courses that are traditionally very hands-on and studio based. Team-Based Learning (TBL) offers a possible instructional approach to increase student engagement through a series of structured activities with emphasis on learning through small group interactions. However, there is a lack of research on the implementation of TBL in the creative multimedia design discipline and it is unclear how students in this discipline would perceive this method of learning. This paper presents a study that sought to introduce TBL to undergraduate creative multimedia design students and elicit their perceptions and attitudes towards this new approach to learning online. The design of the TBL class and student learning experience are discussed in detail. A survey questionnaire was used to gather feedback from students and a simple statistical analysis was conducted. Results suggest that at this introductory stage, students had an overall favourable perception of TBL however felt that the lengthy duration of TBL sessions affected their satisfaction of TBL and therefore remained on the fence about their preference for TBL classes.