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Educator's Voice

Volume 5, Issue 10
October 13, 2004

An Opportunity for Fusion: Trending Toward a Hybrid Model

Though fully-online learning has claimed its place in today's education continuum, there are reasons many students still choose place-based education. As educators we are, to some degree, polarized in our preferences and teaching strategies between best practices online and the traditional methods we use in physical classrooms. Online and on-campus teaching have, paradoxically, come to be perceived as divergent methodology, even though the goal of student learning is common to both (Sands).

Enter a happy medium in the form of the hybrid course model. Hybrid courses "help teachers connect their online work with face-to-face teaching" (Sands). Voos uses the term "blended" rather than "hybrid," stating that "blended learning courses can replace synchronous classroom seat time with asynchronous online learning activities so that instruction occurs both in the classroom and online."

Instructor positives

The best thing about conducting class in two spaces is that the instructors choose the division of learning activities based on individual experience of how they teach best in each type of classroom. It is clear that instructors are more comfortable and effective employing the teaching techniques that come naturally to them. Using an online course as an extension of the classroom allows instructors to apply their most effective traditional classroom methods in the physical classroom, while using the online portion of their course to gain advantages offered by an asynchronous space. Blending online best practices with face-to-face techniques assures instructors access to a range of teaching strategies they would not have in online or on-campus settings alone (Voos, Young).

The portion of the course put online vs. the "seat-time" remaining in the classroom are decisions that may not always belong to the instructor, but the kinds of activities that go to the online space and activities that remain in the classroom are the instructor's decision (Brown). Some instructors don't enjoy lecturing but do like to conduct in-class discussion, while others find that an asynchronous discussion serves their students best and allows for more detailed in-class presentation time. Yet another idea for using an online classroom is to allow resident faculty to team-teach with other instructors/experts who can't be in the same physical location (Young).

Student Positives

We all know that many students choose online courses because of the time flexibility and convenience offered by an asynchronous environment. Even students living on-campus take the occasional online course because it accommodates their schedules--perhaps the on-campus course occurs concurrently with another course they need to take, or maybe the on-campus offering is scheduled when the student needs to work or would prefer to sleep.

Another advantage of a hybrid course to students that may not be obvious has already been mentioned above. When an instructor has access to the full gamut of instructional strategies offered by online and traditional environments, student learning will be enhanced. In short, the students have more opportunities to be more successful.

Some universities are beginning to require students to learn online for at least a portion of their academic career. The reason for this is the growing prevalence of online training required in the workplace (Young). A student who is familiar with and knows how to learn online will be more successful. Sands points out that an additional student gain is made in the area of communication and writing skills. When teachers plan a course to include writing (for instance, using threaded discussion) in the online component, "hybrid courses become de facto writing intensive courses."

Institution positives

A primary reason for the growing number of hybrid courses is an institution's need for space efficacy. Investing in virtual infrastructure is, over time, much less expensive than building physical classrooms. Young cites the case of the University of Central Florida, which at one time had to rent space from a nearby movie theater to accommodate its burgeoning number of students. Central Florida chose to convert about 100 courses to hybrids, meeting 50% online and thus reduced the physical space needs of those courses by 50%. Not having to build and maintain buildings, or even distribute paper collateral, delivers an overall cost savings to cash-strapped schools.

As demonstrated above, students gain when they learn to learn online. This ability adds to their success at the workplace, and this success translates to success for their alma mater, promoting future graduate's chances in the job market.

In closing, the hybrid course arrangement creates new opportunities for everyone involved. As Voos points out, the blended learning model allows existing course resources to be redesigned in a half online/half traditional space rather than be completely reinvented. The redesign process, when conducted using best practices for both classroom modes, can be very successful in terms of cost and human capital and is an effective means of creating and managing rich learning environments.

       --Vicki Galloway Harsh, M.A.

Sources Cited:

Brown, David. "Hybrid Courses are Best." http://www.wfu.edu/~brown/Syllabus%20Articles/SylHybrid%20Courses.htm

Sands, Peter. "Inside Outside, Upside Downside: Strategies for Connecting Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Hybrid Courses." Teaching With Technology Today 8:6 20 March 2002 http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/sands2.htm.

Voos, Richard. "Blended Learning: What is it and where might it take us?" Sloan-C View Volume 2: 1, February 2003 http://www.aln.org/publications/view/v2n1/blended1.htm

Young, Jeffry R. "'Hybrid' Teaching Seeks to End the Divide Between Traditional and Online Instruction." The Chronicle of Higher Education, Information Technology (Washington, D.C)_22 March 2002 http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i28/28a03301.htm

TIP

Easy Navigation: A Key to Successful Courses and Successful Students

Have you ever received comments from students informing you that the course that they just completed was a well-taught course, but they found the course to be a little difficult in terms of navigation (i.e., "Where do I go to next?")? Well, there is an easy way to start receiving positive feedback on the course navigation - internal connector links. The internal connector links can bring the student right to the location that is specified. For instance, you could post something like this, "When the reading for Week 3 has been completed, please click the Self-Assessment (Self-Assessment could be the link itself) to access a few questions about the material."

To create internal connector links, the appropriate steps are as follows:

• Click the "Add a Link" (chain link) icon.
• Within the drop down menu select "Link to Area in Course."
• Select either "Course Content" or "Course Tools." Course Content are the actual content items within the course (e.g. lecture, exam, threaded discussion), whereas, Course Tools are the tabs at the top of the course (e.g. Document Sharing, Webliography, Dropbox).
• If you selected Course Content, select the appropriate Week/Topic/Unit that the course content item resides in. If you selected Course Tools within the drop down menu, select the appropriate course tool.
• Enter the link text for the link. The link text is the link information that the students will click to go to a specific area in the course.
• Click the "Add Link" tab.

When these steps have been completed, make sure to click the Save Changes button

       --Theresa Turner