Thanks to Covid making its appearance, it’s no surprise that distance learning has popped up seemingly overnight. Schools everywhere had no choice but to master the intricacies of digital learning and ensure students still get the education they need. But now that the vaccine is becoming widely available, it’s only expected we see people returning to classrooms for face-to-face education. And now we see a new model for learning – the hybrid learning model.
The Future Of Education – The Hybrid Learning Model
After making such a huge transition to online learning, you’d be hard-pressed to see institutions give it up completely. And it makes sense. After all, there are benefits to both in-person learning and digital learning as well. But if you combine the two, you’ve got an amazing recipe for a flexible learning model everybody can benefit from.
In-person teaching is great for social presence/support, brainstorming, and even role play, which can help cement lessons as you see them play out in “real” life. While online education is better for self-paced learning, reflective work, and critical analysis as well, which are all things that require time to think on your own.
So if you want to make hybrid learning work for your students, here are 6 ways to run an A+ class.
6 Ways To Run The Perfect Hybrid Learning Class
#1 Plan Early And Adapt Often
As early as possible, at least 3-6 months ahead of time, plan out all the details of your class. Flesh out all your learning modules and make sure they’re in line with appropriate learning goals. You want to make sure you can actually manage everything. That way, grading all their work won’t be a huge hassle.
#2 Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Always expect something to go wrong. You can plan for this by (1) limiting new activities, and (2) keeping your technology as minimal as possible. The last thing you want is to become overwhelmed. Or even to need tech support for 3+ different hardwares/softwares, while grading multiple tests.
The nice thing is when you keep things simple like this, you can try out new technology slowly and safely. This will save you a ton of headaches and keep things fresh for both you and students alike.
#3 Keep All Teaching Elements Organized
It can be easy to get lost between all the in-person and online teaching components. So you’ll need to take care to make sure there’s harmony amongst everything. Don’t confuse students by teaching them one thing in person, and then when they go online, they’re suddenly learning about something disconnected from what you just said.
This is why it’s so important to give yourself at least a few months to prepare the course. Because if even you don’t know how all the pieces fit together, you can be sure your students will pay for it.
#4 Create A “How-To-Do” Page For All Tech-Related Activities
All tech has a learning curve and difficulties attached to it. But you can keep tech issues to a minimum by having a document everybody can reference. Especially in regards to directions, FAQs, or even just links to pages that have information students may need.
So try this: if you keep tabs on where you personally struggled using any tools, you can add how you solved that problem to the resource page, which benefits everybody in the process.
#5 Get Help For The Hybrid Learning Model Online First
If you don’t have much experience with hybrid learning, make sure you use smart resources to improve your chances of success with it. So refer to education-based websites (e.g. MERLOT, Educause, etc.) to help out with designing your learning course.
They’ve already “been there, done that.” So you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not heading there to get an idea of how to approach things.
#6 Use Your Social Resources
Just as your students can help each other, you can use your colleagues to create – and run – a successful hybrid class. Ask around and see who has the most experience running hybrid classes, and then see how they can help you. It’d be best if you had a list of specific problems you’ve encountered in addition to any basic questions you have. This is perfect for getting that “in-the-trenches” experience that is always practical.
Help Your Students Succeed Today
On top of making sure your hybrid learning model class is mapped out and organized, it can be useful to your students to make sure they aren’t struggling with the most basic part of online learning – typing!
Being a slow typer is like being forced to speak at half the rate, so you can imagine the frustration if one of your student’s types at a snail’s pace. Make their typing skills better with simple online tools like KeyboardingOnline to give them the best hybrid learning experience possible.