Professor Kannan Mohan explains the benefits of the hybrid model in his courses on Computer Information Systems, where his students work independently online to report and analyze particular digital systems, while meeting once each week to share results and discuss course material.

Instead of having a two and a half hour discussion where I drive everything, they realize that they can do this at their own speed; some students that need more challenge can do what it takes to get that challenge, while some who are behind can use that time to catch up.

Professor Antonietta D’Amelio discusses her use of technology in teaching courses on Italian cinema and literature, the need to create an appropriate balance between physical and digital interactions, and the ways that online spaces can create different entryways into conversations about complex material.

I think you have to rethink your role. What is my role in any classroom? If you want to have them engage in a conversation, then I think you have to take a deliberate step back and perhaps refashion your whole idea of how I’m going to teach this.

Professor Debra Caplan explains how students in her Theater courses use the city of New York as an experiential laboratory, investigating the theater world outside the classroom while meeting each week to collaborate and reflect on their independent investigations.

My methodology for hybridizing this course has been to take aspects of the curriculum that I’ve taught in the classroom and to build activities around them that they conduct out in real time in real space.

Baruch student Sherry Cho shares her thoughts on hybridization, explaining how “keyboard courage” can help some students come out of their shell, and offering reasons for both hope and skepticism about the ways that technology can change the classroom.

Most of the hybrid courses that I’ve taken in the past have been bare bones replications of the classroom setting . . . basically just a posting board. I think that can have some purpose, to foster discussion, but that’s a really limited view of what hybridization can be.

Baruch student Jeff Israel talks about his work with Blogs@Baruch, discusses some of the ways hybridization can impact the quality of education, and explains how “self-motivated” students are often the most likely to succeed in hybrid environments.

I think the overwhelming feeling at Baruch, among most students, is that efficiency trumps everything. It’s a business school that teaches not only in its classrooms, but with its model.