Presented By: Jessiann Dusenbery, Eastern New Mexico University
Co-Authors: Kalynn Baldock, Eastern New Mexico University

Team Based learning is used to apply concepts, make students think critically, problem solve, and learn how to work with others in a real-world setting. Students are able to obtain an understanding through their own efforts. Production management courses are designed to prepare students for problem-solving with in production agriculture. Many production agriculture daily problems are solved by a team of professionals. The purpose of this study was to determine if a modified team-based learning approach would be an effective strategy for teaching Advanced Dairy Production course. This course is a 16-week undergraduate course for juniors and seniors. At the beginning of this course students were randomly divided into groups of four. As a modification each student was assigned specific role within dairy management. Roles were owner, manager, veterinarian, and nutritionist. Topics were presented to the teams as problems faced when managing dairy farms. These problems required students to work as a group, with each member looking at the problem from the perspective of their role. Students had to determine how their assigned roles would approach the issue on a dairy. At the end of the semester, students were interviewed regarding their thoughts of team-based learning. Students were also emailed a Qualtrics survey with eight Likert-type questions to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of this approach. Overall students perceived this as an effective method for learning about dairy production. Students liked how they were able to talk to others and solve the problems together. Some groups felt they worked together more effectively than others. Some students found this approach difficult due to the information not being explicitly given to them. Additionally, some groups felt that not all the members put forth adequate effort. Further studies need to be conducted to determine the effects this method has on student learning.