Hybrid Model

[HigherEd7]

What are your thoughts on a teaching in a hybrid model? For those of you that do it do you like it?

[marshwiggle]

Speaking as someone primarily responsible for labs, it's completely unworkable. The activities that can be done remotely and the ones that can be done in person aren't the same, and even when some activities can be similar, they won't necessarily fit in the same sequence, so they can't be mixed and matched.

[Antiphon1]

It's better than no face time, but only if  you say it really fast.  To amplify marshwiggle's response - trying conduct practical applications in an online format is ridiculous.  The hybrid format also works better for upper division and grad level courses than lower division classes.  However, if Zoom has taught nothing else, virtual is OK in a pinch, but we communicate and behave in much more productive manners when we can personally see the whites of our collective eyes.  My experience leans toward concluding that hybrid makes us all lazy and sloppy because we don't have be completely ready for class and can use the format as a spring board into procrastination.  Not a fan here. 

[mleok]

If by hybrid, you mean something like hyflex, then that's more than double the regular workload for a purely in-person or remote class. It's not really possible to accommodate both in-person and remote students without compromising the educational experience for at least one group of students. In a large class, you're probably better off adopting a flipped classroom approach, with a mix of in-person and remote sections.

Your posts are always incredibly open-ended, perhaps a bit of context would be helpful in getting you more targeted advice without wasting everyone's time posting things that are irrelevant to your concerns.

[marshwiggle]

If by hybrid, you mean something like hyflex, then that's more than double the regular workload for a purely in-person or remote class.

FWIW, I was assuming something like that OR the situation where an outbreak would require the whole course to go remote at some point in the term for some number of weeks.

[mamselle]

In lecture settings, one concern has to be that the audio is working for both those present and those online.

I'm sitting in on a couple of hybrid conference-like lectures; those in the room can hear just fine, but unless the speaker is directly miked, and the Q/A has a roving  microphone-handler to 'catch' the questions directly, those listening remotely feel left-out and ignored.

It's not that hard to do those extra microphone steps, but you do have to think about it and allow a few moments of setup time for it, if you want your remote listeners to feel like they're being included.

(It may also help, but be less necessary, to call their names, when they first appear, or acknowledge the remote attendees by at least the number of them, so others in the room are aware of their presence, too.)

M.

[jerseyjay]

I agree that some more context would have been useful. There is no "hybrid model" but several models.

Before the pandemic, the "hybrid model" implied some mixture of online teaching (usually asynchronous) with some in-classroom teaching. For example, a course where most of the work was done onilne but once every two or three weeks there was a lecture/discussion that everybody was supposed to attend.

Now, I have mainly heard the term to apply to courses that mix some form of in-class lecture or discussion with synchronous online content. Sometimes it is a class that meets (say) on Monday and Wednesday, and the professor is in the classroom lecturing but some students are at home (or wherever) on Zoom. Sometimes it is a class that has some days that are all-person and some days that are all via Zoom. Sometimes it is a course that all sessions involve some students meet in the classroom and some meet via Zoom. (I would call all of these some form of hyflex.)

I have heard mixed reviews of these types of formats. One problem is that it often results in the professor and one or two students in the class and everybody else at home. Sometimes I have had colleagues try to modulate who can attend via Zoom (limiting it to people who have not been vaccinated, or only half the class on Monday and the other half on Wednesday). I have heard mixed reviews from both professors and students about the hyflex model, with some really loving it, some really hating it, and most in-between.

There are other hybrid possibilities. For example, the course can be primarily in-person, but instead of cancelling class in the case of bad weather, the entire class temporarily transitions to online. Some colleagues made this Wednesday (before Thanksgiving) a Zoom day in order to try to get students to attend class.

[Puget]

If I never have to teach on zoom again it will be too soon. It's fine as a temporary accommodation for students who are sick or need to quarantine and for the occasional snow day. It is terrible for regular instruction, especially anything involving discussion. Maybe some people can make it work well, but I absolutely hated it.

Now, some people might consider my current course "hybrid" because it is flipped-- instead of me lecturing live, students complete online lessons that consist of short lecture segments and other videos interspersed with multiple choice learning check questions, then come to class one day a week (class split in half between the days) where I lead structured discussion and they complete in class activities and assignments. That i like, and students seem to like it and learn better. But the key thing is the online part is all asynchronous.

[Zeus Bird]

I taught "rotating hybrid" courses last year and like other faculty who taught in this format I was required to be present in the classroom for each class session while different sections of students (in theory) were alternately in-person and then online.  A sizable portion of the students, however, kept lobbying to turn the course into a completely online course, while other students and the administration insisted on the in-class component.  In the end, admin critters used the language of "working with students" (i.e. in our case, letting them do whatever they want) so that what was supposed to be a hybrid course in fact turned out to be a hyflex course.  I was teaching to a mostly empty room onsite by the last month of the semester, exposed to whatever pathogens lurked in our antiquated classroom building.

Traditional pre-COVID hybrids are compelling, and rotating-hybrids could work if administrators held the line against turning it into hyflex.  For my part, I would avoid rotating hybrids if at all possible.

[fishbrains]

I can teach successfully fully online. I can teach successfully fully face-to-face.

I feel like the various hybrid models simply force me to do the best I can. The various hybrids do not bring together the best of both worlds in the way many of our higher-ups seem to think. My experience has shown me that online learning requires a certain skill set and face-to-face learning works with a slightly different skill set. Toggling between the two is a challenge.

[artalot]

Like others, I am not in favor of courses that are in person and remote at the same time (hyflex). Having the students in multiple locations is difficult to manage and group work and discussion is next to impossible. I was always forgetting to start up some piece of equipment needed to zoom, record and show materials in the classroom. I hated being recorded and felt like it stifled conversation about controversial topics.
I refuse to do them. My uni has said we are back in person, so back in person we are.

[downer]

You'd have to pay me a lot of money to teach hybrid.

[mleok]

What are your thoughts on a teaching in a hybrid model? For those of you that do it do you like it?

I'm curious if you'll find even one person who likes hybrid teaching. As others have mentioned, teaching in a hybrid fashion typically results in compromising both the in-person and remote experience over what could be achieved with just a single format, and doing it well requires a tremendous amount of additional work.

[lightning]

In the end, you should use whatever course delivery format works best for the content and the students. Pre-pandemic, the best course delivery format was decided by the faculty member teaching the course. During the pandemic, that governance was taken away, and that's why hybrid sucks. Hybrid is now used for the wrong reasons, mandated by the wrong people, and delivering the content least suited to the delivery format(s) and the students. 

[mleok]

In the end, you should use whatever course delivery format works best for the content and the students. Pre-pandemic, the best course delivery format was decided by the faculty member teaching the course. During the pandemic, that governance was taken away, and that's why hybrid sucks. Hybrid is now used for the wrong reasons, mandated by the wrong people, and delivering the content least suited to the delivery format(s) and the students.

But, is there ever an instance where one would ever choose a hybrid method of delivery, which wouldn't be soul draining?