Hybrid classes — a blend of online and face-to-face learning — can work well for community college students, writes Linda Thor in Community College Times. Thor draws on experiences at Rio Salado College, a virtual college in Arizona for working adults, and the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California’s Silicon Valley, where she serves as chancellor.
A Center for Community College Student Engagement survey found that students who received blended instruction reported being more engaged than those who took all-online classes, Thor writes.
By shifting some attendance off campus, hybrid classes allow colleges to serve more students with the same facilities.
Students experience the benefits of online learning, including “convenience, flexibility, and increased opportunity for reflection and self-directed learning” without giving up on “face-to-face contact with an instructor and social interaction with other students.”
Faculty members report that well-structured hybrid courses can stimulate exciting levels of student engagement and participation in ways similar to fully online courses. Online, no one can sit silently in the back of the class. The online medium offers opportunities to engage students in innovative ways that are not as feasible or effective on campus.
A well-designed hybrid class can help instructors make the most of their classroom time by enabling electronic completion of such tasks as exchanging tests, papers, and other documents; dispensing information about grades; and critiquing student work. Students also can easily share their work with each other.
Mike Murphy, a Foothill computer science instructor, uses Web video- and audio-conferencing software applications for his Cisco networking class. Students can attend his class in person or virtually. That enables working students to review material they missed or participate in class live while traveling.
Hybrid courses can increase demand on campus computer labs and the technology infrastructure. Faculty and students may need more tech support.
Teaching a hybrid course for the first time requires faculty to climb a steep learning curve for which they need adequate time, resources, and support. They need the computer equipment, software, course development time, training, and instructional design services necessary to develop, maintain, and manage the delivery of high-quality instruction.
Developing effective hybrid courses is just as difficult as developing fully online courses, Thor writes. Ultimately, the most important factor is the skill of the instructor.
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