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  • The Hybrid Solution

    By Joshua Kim September 14, 2009 9:50 pm EDT

    Have you seen Wick Sloan's piece "Teaching After Midnight," on his experience with his late night teaching at Bunker Hill Community College? This is a great essay, one that I hope my learning technology colleagues take the time to check out.

    My first response, which I bet will be shared by many of you, is that Bunker Hill could leverage technology by offering more hybrid courses. A hybrid course could make better use of the classroom by only having class meetings for one hour per week, allowing three classes to use the same space as a regular in-class course. A hybrid model supports many of the great things about face-to-face learning, such as the delivery of intense lectures and opportunity to get to know the professor and fellow students in person, while better leveraging scarce classroom resources.

    I greatly admire Wick's dedication and his willingness to experiment with alternate teaching times to meet his students needs. The issue I have is that midnight teaching is not a scalable model, where hybrid (and online) teaching can be. Wick writes that "..two thirds of my class this morning enrolled at midnight because all the day, evening and weekend sections were full. The rest have night jobs..". For the one-third of the students with night jobs then I think online courses are the right solution. The other two-thirds could be accommodated by increasing the number of sections by going with a hybrid approach.

    Did Bunker Hill consider creating hybrid classes? I wonder if any learning technologists or other folks on campus who are comfortable with course management systems and technology enabled learning had a place at the table to address the course supply crisis?

    Wick is right when he argues that: "This is a national nightmare. Not a cry but a scream for help from these students. Sure, it’s great that community colleges are finding ways to respond to the huge enrollment increases they are seeing. But, to paraphrase Groucho Marx, do we want to be citizens in a country that forces its poorest students to go to college at midnight?" Perhaps teaching some sections at midnight will get enough attention to dramatize just how badly resources are strained at community colleges and public schools. But I also think that this enrollment boom can serve as an opportunity to introduce and extend other models of course design and delivery. For Bunker Hill, and many other places facing a crush of students, hybrid and online education seems to be the answer.

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Comments on The Hybrid Solution

  • Amen!
  • Posted by C , Adjunct for adult students at a liberal arts institution at Liberal Arts University in the South on September 15, 2009 at 10:00am EDT

  • I teach in a hybrid program for adult learners. It's the only way to get enough credit hours in to get them through a degree completion program in a reasonable amount of time. I love it, and I think the students do as well. From the first week's class, they are developing a sense of camaraderie and class 'togetherness', which is critical to their success in a cohort-style program. I work hard to maximize both our in-class and online contact hours: when we're together, we are discussing, working and learning together, not watching videos. They feel like they have enough contact with me to be comfortable with their assignments and to not feel like they are having to learn on their own. It's a fantastic solution.

    However.... aside from that one program, our institution has found that, otherwise, hybrid courses are not marketable and do not "make". It's disappointing to all of us. Our students either want the flexibility of all online, or they want the full 'value' of having their instructor with them. It will be interesting to see if, going forward, this model does catch on. If it does, they can sign me up....

  • Midnight College is not a substitute, it's another option
  • Posted by BHCC Administrator on September 15, 2009 at 2:30pm EDT

  • BHCC has a thriving online progam and plenty of hybrid courses.

  • question to BHCC administrator
  • Posted by Joshua Kim on September 15, 2009 at 5:15pm EDT

  • Hi BHCC Administrator. Quick question. It sounds from Wick's piece that the midnight classes were offered to meet demand given that daytime classes were full: "..two thirds of my class this morning enrolled at midnight because all the day, evening and weekend sections were full. " I'm wondering if more daytime sections could have been opened up with hybrid classes....giving students who would feel comfortable with a face-to-face component an option? The problem seems mostly (2/3 thirds) to be full face-to-face classes, and not students demanding classes in the middle of the night. Thanks...Josh

  • Hybrid as Solution to Slim Budgets
  • Posted by SDSU , Psychology at SDSU on September 16, 2009 at 1:15pm EDT

  • I have another scenario in which hybrid courses might represent an innovative solution to a pressing problem. In response to the California budget collapse, the Department of Psychology at SDSU has turned to paired hybrid courses to maximize the use of classroom space. Specifically, two 500-student courses are scheduled in the same classroom at the same time. One of the two courses uses the room on Tuesdays, at which time the other course meets for live online sessions. On Thursday, the courses switch and the face-to-face Tuesday course meets online on Thursday and the online Tuesday course meets face-to-face on Thursday. Instructors in these courses spent the summer learning how to teach a blended learning course in effective ways.

    We will be evaluating student learning outcomes, student and faculty satisfaction, and a host of other variables as part of this creative solution to a dire budget situation in the CSU system.

    Any thoughts?

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