Hybrid Courses
a blueprint for success
Patricia S. Rahmlow
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Montgomery County Community College
Blue Bell, PA
Background
• Undergraduate: BS Math, Ursinus College
• Graduate: MBA, St. Joseph’s University
• Experience
– Computer Industry: 20 years in various positions
including programming, customer support and
marketing
– Academic: MCCC since January 1998
• Online: Spring 2000 (approximately 30 sections to date)
• Hybrid: Fall 2003 (4 sections to date)
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Burning Questions?
• What one question do you want
answered today about hybrid courses?
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What?
• Is your definition of
a hybrid course?
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Why?
• Why do you want to teach a hybrid
course?
• Why do students want to take a hybrid
course?
• Why should you teach a hybrid course?
• Why should students take a hybrid
course?
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How?
• How often will you
meet?
• Why did you choose
this time frame?
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What?
• What part of your course will be online?
• What part of your course will be outside
of the classroom?
• What types of support materials are
available to the student for out of
classroom learning?
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Help?
• How often will you be available to the
student?
• What mechanism will be available for
student-to-student help?
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What is a hybrid course?
• A blended course using technology to help
achieve your goals
• An approach to teaching that replaces some
in-class activities with online activities
• Instruction that is highly structured but still
flexible
• Teaching that is more learner focused than
face-to-face courses
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Advantages – Faculty
• More material can be covered
• You can do the teaching you really want
to but never had time to do
• Focus on more interesting / complicated
topics in classroom
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Advantages – Students
• Student’s pace can be personalized to
match their progress
– Weaker students can receive more of
faculty’s attention
– Stronger students can be released from
events they do not need to participate in
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Advantages – Students
• Face-to-face communication
• Exposure to learning environment
prevalent in workplace
• Exposure to communication methods
prevalent in workplace
• Extra help before taking completely
online course
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Disadvantages – Faculty
• Faculty must do more planning
• Faculty must monitor goals
• Faculty must learn to see things in a
new way
• Faculty must question their own
premises
• Faculty must be available outside of
traditional work hours
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Disadvantages – Students
• Students must understand what is
•
•
•
•
being done
Students must
Students must
time
Students must
Students must
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be motivated
be able to manage their
be technically competent
ask for help
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Where do you begin?
• Analyze what you do
• Determine what you don’t enjoy doing
• Decide what you can do better
• Define student needs
• Identify what students can complete
without your immediate help
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Analyze what you do
• Lecture
• Demonstration
• Discussions
• Lab exercises
• Field trips
• Guest speakers
• Web quests
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Determine what you don’t enjoy doing
• What parts of teaching do you just plain
wish you didn’t have to do?
• What parts of your teaching are rote?
• What parts are you extraneous to?
• What parts do you have so well
documented that they can stand alone?
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Decide what you can do better
• What topics need more time in the
classroom?
• What topics are better in a conference
mode?
• What additional topics would you like to
cover?
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Define student needs
• What are student’s weaknesses that
curriculum does not address?
• What would enable students to better use
their time?
• What would allow student’s to focus on their
interests or specialties?
• Do students need multiple evaluation
strategies to demonstrate their mastery of
the material?
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Identify what students can complete
without your immediate help
• Group projects
• Group discussions
• Mini-research projects
• Group research projects
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What do the experts say?
Cynthia Villanti
Mohawk Valley Community College
• Hybrid courses enable a balance between faculty-
•
•
•
•
centered and student-centered models
Maintain face-to-face learning environment including
non-verbal communication
All communication skills are developed – verbal
(speaking and listening) and written (reading and
writing)
Hybrid can increase student retention
On-campus assessment addresses honesty concerns
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What do the experts say?
University of Southern Indiana
• Students and faculty in hybrid courses faced
the greatest challenges (compared to online
and face-to-face)
• Difficulties not due to course design
• Hybrid courses take more work from the
student
• Hybrid courses take more coaching from
faculty
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What do the experts say?
University of Southern Indiana
• Switching modes causes confusion
• Out of sight, out of mind
• Different number of meetings for
various hybrid courses
• Advising problems with determining
whether a student is a good candidate
for a hybrid course
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What do the experts say?
University of Southern Indiana
• Online part is sometimes superficial
• Instructors active in classroom
discussion, not usually in online
discussion
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MCCC Courses
Fall 2004
• Total sections: 1847
– One to ten credits
– Any day or time
• Online sections: 92
• Hybrid sections: 6
• Telecourses: 14
• Face-to-face sections: 1741
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MCCC Courses
• Disciplines
– Computer Science
– Education
– Engineering
• Faculty Training / Course Development
– Online training
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Resources
• Richard D. Greenwood
Professor of English, MCCC
• Faculty Focus Newsletter
Saxon G. Reasons at saxrea@usi.edu
• AFT – On Campus
http://www.aft.org/publications/on_campus/oct03/technology.html
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Examples
• CIS110 Hybrid
• CIS114 Hybrid
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Questions
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