There are many different skills and characteristics that an instructor of a hybrid course will have or will need to develop. These include core Canvas skills, skills for teaching in the online environment of a hybrid course, and, potentially, competencies for teaching a hybrid course with a video conference component or a web-conferencing component.
Core Canvas Skills
Every hybrid course is a little different in how it is structured and how it uses Canvas tools. That being said, there is a short list of tasks the instructor must be able to do to function in the online course. There may be additional tasks you need to be familiar with related specifically to the construction of your course. If you are unfamiliar with the structure of the course that you’ll be teaching, please seek out the original course author, a colleague who may have already taught the course, or the instructional designer. Ask for an overview of the course operation, flow, and dynamics to help you be as prepared as possible for teaching this course.
At a more general level, an instructor using Canvas should be able to do the following:
- Log in to the course.
- Access the class roster.
- Post an announcement.
- Use Canvas e-mail (Inbox).
- Post to and/or moderate discussions.
- Set up “groups” of students for team work.
- Manage students’ assignments (submissions and feedback).
- Access and grade student submissions.
- Use the course grade book.
- Submit course grades at the end of the semester.
For more information on Canvas please visit our University Resources/Policies page.
Faculty Competencies for Online Teaching
Penn State has created a detailed listing of faculty competencies for online teaching. While teaching a hybrid course is different than teaching a completely online course, the skill set needed for hybrid teaching should include these competencies. To review, go to the Faculty Competencies for Online Teaching page at the Web Learning @ Penn State website: Web Learning @ Penn State: Competencies for Online Teaching.
Competencies for Teaching a Hybrid Course with a Video Conference Component
Personality
An instructor in a video conference course should be able to do the following:
- Create well-planned and focused presentations with emphasis on teacher-student interaction (interactive video conference).
- Build rapport with students at a distance.
- Recover from or move past technical difficulties (stay calm and know how to find help for technical issues).
Teaching Style
An instructor in a video conference course should be able to do the following:
- Focus attention on all students, not just those at the “home” site.
- Encourage dialogue and actively involve learners.
- Change instruction methods every 10-15 minutes (uses multiple presentation styles and transitions well between them).
- Bring in outside experts and/or resources to supplement the class.
- Make use of non-verbal communication.
- Keep the remote audience in mind by maintaining good eye contact to the remote audience, wearing appropriate clothing (solid shirts that avoid bright, saturated colors, such as red), and speaking slowly with inflection and expression to keep students’ attention and interest.
- Utilize feedback tools to frequently assess the students’ levels of understanding.
Technical
An instructor in a video conference course should be able to do the following:
- Utilize important visuals and interactive learning objects to increase student engagement and understanding.
- Effectively and competently understand the video conference equipment in order to provide basic troubleshooting.
- Select the appropriate tools to integrate activities for all students at various sites.
Competencies for Teaching a Hybrid Course with a Web-Conferencing Component
Personality
An instructor in a web-conferencing course should be able to do the following:
- Create well-planned and focused presentations with emphasis on teacher-student and student-to-student interaction (interactive web-based conference).
- Build rapport with students who are all at a distance.
- Recover from or move past technical difficulties (stay calm and know how to find help for technical issues).
Teaching Style
An instructor in a web-conferencing course should be able to do the following:
- Focus attention on all students by looking at the text chat, videos of students on the screen (if applicable), and the list of participants with gestures (hands-raised, checkmarks, etc.)
- Encourage dialogue and actively involve learners.
- Change instruction methods every 10-15 minutes (uses multiple presentation styles and transitions well between them).
- Bring in outside experts and/or resources to supplement the class.
- Make use of non-verbal communication ensuring your non-verbal communications are visible via your web-cam.
- Keep the remote audience in mind by maintaining good eye contact by looking at the web-cam, limit distractions in the background of the room, and speak slowly with inflection and expression to keep students’ attention and interest.
- Utilize feedback tools to frequently assess the students’ levels of understanding by utilizing polls, asking questions where students verbally respond or type in the text chat, etc.
Technical
An instructor in a web-conferencing course should be able to do the following:
- Utilize important visuals and interactive learning objects to increase student engagement and understanding.
- Effectively and competently understand the web-conferencing equipment in order to provide basic troubleshooting.
- Select the appropriate tools to integrate activities for all students.
- Plan the online session
- Create PowerPoint in advance
- Add “interaction slides”
- Plan your interactions with student
- Create poll
- Provide materials to students in advance
- Have a back-up plan
- Provide technical support info / have students “join” a practice session
- Practice! / do a run-through
- Conduct pre-session activities
- Join 15 minutes PRIOR to session
- Have room “open up” 15 minutes PRIOR to Session
- Have “how to” slide / getting started slide
- Interact informally with students
- Conduct beginning of session activities
- Do a microphone check
- Record!
- On-Going: Make eye contact
- On-Going: Check-in with students to ensure they hear you/see you/see the content
- On-Going: Use annotation to grab and direct attention
- Conduct end of session activities
- Have students “stay to end”
- After Q&A, provide final comment / “call-to-action”
- Stop recording
- Download chat
- Conduct after session activities
- Respond to unanswered questions
- Post any related artifacts / additional resources
- Post recording
- For required sessions, add associated steps to ensure they watched recording
- Send announcement to class