Transitioning Your On-Campus Class to a Hybrid Online Class
Workshop
August 26 th , 2008
Definitions:

Web-enhanced class: all of the regularly scheduled classroom hours still occur on campus, but the instructor uses Blackboard (typically) to provide handouts, supplemental material, opportunities for further discussion. No approval is required to web-enhance your class.

Hybrid online class: some of the regularly scheduled classroom hours
(instructional time) are shifted to online. For example, a 3-unit, 54-hour class would be a hybrid if it only meets on campus for 30 hours, with the remainder of the “instructional time” occurring online.

Online class: all of the regularly scheduled classroom hours are shifted to online.
Four paths to your hybrid online class:
1.
Conceptualizing your course: the rationale for a hybrid online, which activities occur in the classroom vs. online, etc. This is the focus of this workshop.
2.
Learning Blackboard, if that is how you will manage the online portion of your class. Blackboard is used by 95+% of our online and hybrid online classes, but it’s not a requirement. The first step to learn Blackboard is to make an appointment for initial training at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/ITC/workshops/workshop.asp?workshopID=158 .
3.
Gaining the support of your discipline colleagues and your Dean for offering the course in a hybrid online format. This is required, or your class won’t be scheduled even if you do develop it!
4.
Developing a Distance Education proposal and gaining approval from the DE
Committee. You’ll find more information on this process and timeline at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/DECSC/documentation/Spring2009Process.asp
Why transition to hybrid online? Some possible motivations:

To better schedule courses in a time of tight classroom space

To enable students to take more courses, or to have more sensible schedules
 To provide access to students that can’t commit significant time to on-campus learning
 To increase enrollments, or make a class viable that doesn’t often “go” on campus

To keep students connected to learning in your course throughout the week

To better leverage the wealth of resources on the Internet

To better focus class time on learning activities that require interaction

To enable you to have a more sensible schedule
Your motivation, or your goals, help to determine which portions of your class will be shifted to the online environment.

What are some common online features of a hybrid online class?

Discussion forums—to keep the class discussing and learning the content of your class throughout the week, and to enable them to continue to ask questions of you outside of class time.

Quizzes: almost any quiz format can be made available in Blackboard, and there are tools to minimize the possibility of cheating.

Assignment submission and feedback: some instructors find it much easier to grade assignments and provide feedback in Blackboard, and we now have a new plagiarism detection tool for written assignments integrated in Blackboard—
SafeAssign.

Groupwork: you can organize “group pages” in Blackboard for team projects.
These can include private discussion forums, file exchange (for written assignments), group live chat. You can shift class time devoted to working on these projects to online time.

Exams
Every instructor does this a bit differently. There is no right way—just the right way for your class. You may want to take “baby steps”, starting with just shifting 15-20% of your class online the first semester, and then adding more online elements as your comfort level increases and you get feedback.
For more information:

DE Committee website: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/DECSC

Instructional Technology website: http://www.chabotcollege.edu/ITC

BOLT (Blackboard Online Learning Team): http://clpccd.blackboard.com
. You must complete the initial Blackboard training to access this site.

@One CA Community College online teaching website: http://cccone.org
.
You’ll find lunchtime webinars, online teaching courses, and the “Knowledge
Center”, which includes a self-paced, free courses entitled “Converting Your
Onsite Course to Online”