May 2007 — News

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Hybrid Learning: Challenges for Teachers

by Ruth Reynard

With the move to hybrid or "blended" course delivery that is taking place in many institutions, there is a challenge for teachers to think through the pedagogical implications of both methods and develop new designs for instruction and course delivery that maximizes both environments. The goal in the design of the instruction is to make the experience as "seamless" as possible for students, providing intentionality for each environment and the technology used. This intentionality must emerge from the learning outcomes of the course, as well as the engagement of the student throughout and the effective use of technology to heighten interaction and to support the production of learning.

The Challenge to Teachers
Many teachers have a fear of technology and often see a move to hybrid or online learning as a move to replace them as teachers and as a way to diminish the learning experience for students. It is important to remember that technology is only a tool in learning and should never drive the process. When it does, students feel frustrated and tend to see it all as "busy" work rather than as instructionally beneficial. Additionally, teachers can feel overwhelmed in having too many student responses to read through and not really sure what to do with those response or how to integrate them into the learning experience. As such, the technology-supported tasks or activities tend to "sit outside" the actual course, and the course then has the usual classroom time, usual assignments and evaluation activities, plus additional and tedious online activities.

The main problem here is that the instructional design has not changed because the actual online methodology has not been understood. In professional development for teachers, more time should be spent on methodology training than on technology training. Usually, the reverse is true, and teachers can know how the technology works but remain confused about what the benefits are to instruction or why the change is necessary in the first place.

The Challenge to Methods
While I have taught courses in hybrid design for the last eight years, I have consistently worked on a methodology that combines both effective classroom delivery and online delivery into a hybrid design that I have found to be successful.

My focus throughout was to look at how the design of instruction and how the use of technology could heighten the engagement of the students in their learning process. As I have already stated, many educational institutions (schools, colleges, and universities) are moving toward hybrid programming and hybrid course delivery intentionally to provide more flexibility for on ground students and to increase the overall marketability of programs of study to potential students. My sense is, however, the main benefit to hybrid from a teaching and learning viewpoint is that it provides an opportunity for the learning process to become much more engaging for students, and for students to drive the learning process more directly.