Challenges and lessons: Design and implementation of a multi-site evaluation of team-based learning

The authors of this article describe the design and implementation of a multi-site randomized controlled trial of team-based learning (TBL) application exercises (AE) in introductory economics courses that use TBL. For each of the four study modules that are common across sites, a site is assigned to either the treatment or control version of the module. This design enables the use of a fixed effects model to estimate the effect of treatment on student learning and control for student characteristics. The methodology demonstrates how to extract the benefits of multi-site randomized controlled designs using a minimum of resources. The authors also discuss the challenges and the lessons learned in this study.