Penn State’s Fall 2017 semester began on August 21, 2017. A quick search of the schedule of courses for all lecture-based courses that are designated as “hybrid – online and in-person” yielded 536 courses. Given the broad range of reduced seat time for a course to be classified as hybrid, it would not be surprising for a student in one of these 536 courses to not have a clear understanding of expectations for the course.
While the Hybrid Learning @ Penn State site addresses many common recommendations and strategies for preparing your students (https://sites.psu.edu/hybridlearning/course-expectations/), this post will revisit some and provide additional considerations.
So what can be done on and before the first day of class to help students be successful in a hybrid course? The Innovative Learning Institute of the Rochester Institute of Technology (https://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/tls/course-design/online-courses/blended-courses) provides some useful tips:
- Be sure that your course is flagged as “hybrid” on the schedule of courses.
- Approximately a week before the course begins, send an email or announcement to introduce students to their blended learning experience.
- Clearly convey your rationale for teaching a hybrid course.
- Provide students with with an overview of all assignments and assessments.
- Use consistent instructions.
Clearly conveying your rationale for using a hybrid format is critical. The following are some points taken from a syllabus for a hybrid course:
- This course will be delivered using a blended format. In this course, we operate on the principle that you will learn best when you are actively working on a task rather than passively listening. Both passive listening and active work have their places in the learning process. In class we will focus on introducing concepts and discussion and deeper explanation than could be provided outside of the classroom. Your outside-of-class time will largely be spent applying the material learned during lecture.
- This format enables you to work at your own pace and engage with the material.
- Please be assured that you are not being asked to “teach yourself” the course material. In fact, you will be receiving a much higher quantity and quality of professor help in this format than you would in a traditional format, because the professor is available in the same room as you exactly when you are encountering the hardest concepts.
In addition to the above, you may want to share a video that explains how hybrid learning works. One example is Blended Learning by Common Craft https://www.commoncraft.com/video/blended-learning
Students will want to know your expectations of them and answer to questions such as:
- When are they in class and when are they online?
- How can they contact you and how soon will you respond during the online component?
- Why does there seem to be so much work outside of the class?
How are you providing this information to your students? Are there other areas of confusion that need to be addressed? Feel free to share your best practices through comments to this post.
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