Questions and considerations for faculty members teaching a hybrid course for the first time are outlined below.
When planning how time will be spent in a hybrid course, you need to consider what will work best for your teaching style and method. Many hybrid courses are split “50/50” between online and face-to-face (F2F) time. This may not be the best method for every course so you may want to consider various options. Some faculty members in the past have found the 50/50 split manageable for their first time teaching a hybrid course.
- Give an overview of the course, including details of what a hybrid course entails
- Clearly delineate what is expected of students in terms of time commitment, internet/computer access
- Include a breakdown of how/when/where time will be spent (online and F2F)
- Describe how the online time will be structured (what will happen online?)
- Create clear and consistent due dates for (online) assignments to include in course schedule
- In the course schedule differentiate between online and F2F meetings
- Include information about what technologies will be used and provide instructions on how to find and access that space/tool
These samples of hybrid course syllabi might also lend some insight into past hybrid courses and how they were structured. These syllabi were designed by faculty who participated in the CTL hybridization seminars.
Faculty who teach hybrid courses often have to re-evaluate their course assessment structure. Faculty members have thought carefully the affordances that hybrid courses offer to incorporate digital tools for final projects and weekly assignments. Incorporating weekly assignments help structure the course and may change the grading and assessment processes for the course. Since hybrid courses allow for faculty to reconsider assessment some favor assigning final projects (individual or group) as a large portion of the final grade.
When teaching a hybrid course, faculty members often re-imagine traditional assignments and/or develop new ones to better fit the hybrid model. Often, assignments are scaffolded so that each assignment successively builds on skills and knowledge gained in previous assignments. Faculty members have developed assignments for their hybrid courses that:
- Construct tasks that give students practice before assessment
- Scaffold low-stakes and high-stakes assignments to build upon each other in a logical progression
- Give students varied opportunities to be heard
- Promote active learning
- Engage students in experiential learning
- Encourage the use digital tools
- Construct opportunities for students to create communities in the online environment
- Work towards a final (often digital) project
There are various platforms and tools that can be used facilitate a hybrid course. The CTL’s educational technology page provides an overview of the various tools faculty members have used in hybrid courses.
You will probably want to choose a platform to serve as the main online space for the hybrid course. In the past faculty have typically chosen between Blackboard, the learning management system provided throughout CUNY, and Blogs@Baruch, a blogging and website building platform developed here at Baruch. The platforms differ in functionality and aesthetic design. A comparison chart can be viewed here.
Both platforms offer various ways to share course information, engage students, and create assignments that they can complete online. Assignments can also be created using other digital tools, such as Vocat, Forclass, Twitter. Faculty have also used Google Docs for writing assignments and file sharing. If you are looking for a synchronous web conferencing tool, you may want to consider using Webex.
The CTL runs hybrid seminars bringing faculty members together to think through the process of hybridizing their courses. For more information, take a look at the summary from previous CTL seminar that also discusses CTL’s faculty development strategy in developing online/hybrid courses. The call for proposals circulates in the beginning of the semester prior to the seminar. For more information, contact Laurie Hurson (laurie.hurson@baruch.cuny.edu) .
On Hybridization is a report about faculty and student experiences of teaching and taking hybrid courses at Baruch in the Spring of 2015.
You may also want to consider applying for the CTL hybridization seminars. In the seminar, past faculty share their experiences and present assignments and syllabi that they designed for the course.
The CTL has several hybrid coordinators to support faculty in planning and implementing their hybrid course.
- Lindsey Albracht, Area of expertise: Writing, assessment, accessibility
- Tamara Gubernat, Areas of expertise: Video production, lecture/screen capture
- Laurie Hurson, Area of expertise: Ed tech, Blogs@Baruch, assignment design
