Professional development resources for hybrid teaching and learning overlap considerably with online and traditional classroom education resources. It is difficult to focus solely on hybrid courses. Our goal here is to provide instructors with some of the best resources available for enhancing their skills in hybrid course development and teaching techniques. These resources are broken down into three categories: Penn State-wide opportunities, campus/college-specific opportunities, and free non-Penn State resources.
Penn State-Wide Opportunities
Professional development opportunities are many and varied at Penn State. Here are just a few: Blended Learning Transformation Learning Path (Provided by Teaching and Learning with Technology) is a series of modules including an introduction to blended learning, a guide to course revision, best practices and examples of successful blended courses, and ways to assess the effectiveness of your revised course. Blended Learning Transformation Program (Provided by Teaching and Learning with Technology) offers support for departments, programs, and faculty who wish to redesign their existing residential instruction course to an innovative blended (face-to-face and online) format. This support includes three key areas of faculty development, resources to assist in course development, and assessment.
Faculty Development for Outreach and Online Education offers training in online teaching for any interested Penn State instructor. Their series of OL courses provides an excellent background for teaching in an online or hybrid environment. IT Learning and Development at Penn State provides learning opportunities on many of the technology applications and tools that affect our work and lives at Penn State. The goal of this group is to facilitate teaching and learning with technology to enhance the productivity and efficiency of Penn State’s work force, as well as to provide professional and personal development opportunities to Penn State students, faculty, and staff. LinkedIn Learning offers a huge online library of video training tutorials. These tutorials include training on specific software products, but also educational technologies, creating instructional videos, instructional design frameworks, and teaching techniques. LinkedInLearning is free to Penn State faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students. Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence helps faculty and staff to use effective teaching methods, engage all students in the learning process, effectively assess students’ learning, enhance the value of teaching excellence, and inform decision-making about teaching and learning. Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) helps Penn State instructors take advantage of information technology to enrich the educational experience for their students. Services are designed to support and promote creative and innovative uses of technology within courses, allowing learners to actively engage in the process of acquiring and assimilating core principles and experiences of a discipline. Web Learning @ Penn State is the official Web presence of the Penn State Online initiative. Here you will find links to most of Penn State’s online policies, resources, and governance.
Campus/College-Specific Opportunities
There are some campus and/or college-specific workshops and related resources that are specific to an individual location, including the following:
Commonwealth Campus Faculty Development
Commonwealth Campus Faculty Development Website centralizes access to webinars, guides, and people that are available to support instructors with their teaching practices. As the Campus IDs all work to meet their local needs, this site is a platform for work to support faculty across the Commonwealth. Resources include training webinars, faculty development sessions, informational resources on various instructional modes, a series of “How do I…” resources, and recordings of all past sessions.
Shared Programs
Shared Programs enable students to enroll in courses offered at various Commonwealth campuses, taught by instructors from across the University system. Courses are offered in hybrid and web-enhanced instructional modes designed to provide students and instructors with a blend of scheduled class time and asynchronous learning opportunities. Faculty teaching in these programs are provided faculty development and support in the development and delivery of online and hybrid courses, as well as support for innovative approaches to teaching students who are based at a residential campus, but taking part of their coursework in a technology mediated environment.
Penn State Berks
The Penn State Berks Center for Learning & Teaching offers year‑round professional‑development opportunities that help faculty design, develop, and refine engaging hybrid and online courses. Through individualized consultations and resource‑rich learning sessions the Center supports every stage of course creation from planning and accessibility to instructional technology and quality assurance. For more information, contact Glenn Kuntz, Instructional Designer at ghk20@psu.edu.
Penn State Scranton
The Penn State Scranton Center for Instructional Design provides a number of digital badge programs every semester, including badges for completing accessibility, media production, Canvas and course design workshops and consultations. Contact Griff Lewis, Instructional Designer at Scranton for more information.
Dutton e-Education Institute – College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Faculty Development Resources from Dutton e-Education Institute includes a collection of faculty development resources you can use to help plan, develop, teach, and evaluate your online courses.
Non-Penn State Hybrid Course Resources
The Blended Learning Toolkit from the University of Central Florida and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities is a “free, open resource for educational institutions interested in developing or expanding their blended learning initiatives.” Oregon State University’s Center for Teaching and Learning Hybrid Learning webpage includes extensive resources to help faculty revise courses to a blended format. Seattle University’s Center for Digital Learning and Innovation created the Blended Flow Toolkit, an interactive tool that walks faculty through blended course redesign step-by-step. Texas State University’s Hybrid Course Development website provides an overview of the hybrid course development process, with links to a number of useful resources. Best Practices for Blended Learning from the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo offers an overview of blended course development and includes teaching tip sheets on blended course techniques. Hybrid Pedagogy is an open-access, peer-reviewed digital journal of learning, teaching, and technology.
