Hybrid course delivery: a good fit for education leadership  (Page 4/5)

A need for hybrid course delivery

Today’s higher education students want it all. They desire the flexibility that online course presentation offers, yet they want exposure to experiences that will mold them into candidates for leadership roles they can assume with confidence. Many institutions of higher learning agree. Graham Spanier, President of Penn State University, believes "Hybrid instruction is the single greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today”.

Research concerning the effectiveness of hybrid course delivery compared to both face to face and online delivery is limited. However, results from a University of Central Florida study revealed initial comparative outcomes that are dramatic and consistent. Students enrolled in hybrid courses had the highest success rate. These rates were higher than face-to-face courses and higher than fully online courses (Sorg, Juge,&Bledsoe, 2003).

Sorg, Juge,&Bledsoe (2003) maintained that for some students and subject matters, the most effective mix will be as much as 90% face-to-face and only 10% Internet-based. For other circumstances, the most effective mix will be as much as 90% Internet-based and 10% face-to-face. Usually the optimum mix will be between 90-10 and 10-90. If 90-10 is to become the “gold standard,” a key role for institutions will be to assure that face-to-face students have adequate Internet support. And, the best distance learning programs will be supported by periodic regional gatherings of course participants and by get-to-know-and-trust-you retreats (p. 2).

Delaney (2008), associate dean and CIO of New York University (NYU) School of Law revealed, “Law school students enrolled in hybrid programs outperform those who study exclusively in one environment.” The Department of Education (2009) reported blended or hybrid instruction as more effective at improving student achievement across a variety of subject areas than purely online or face to face instruction.

Benefits of hybrid course delivery

The Teaching-Learning Center (2010) reported hybrid course delivery as providing the following benefits:

Maximizing Physical Resources

• Enrollment Growth: Limited Classroom/Computer Lab Space
• Budget Issues/Equipment

Maximizing Student Learning

• Flexibility: Both students and instructors liked the greater convenience afforded by the hybrid course model.
• Develops/enhances time management, critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills.
• Enhances computer skills, increasing opportunities for academic and professional success.
• Promotes self-directed learning.
• Because of the highly text-based nature of websites and email, hybrid courses become de facto writing-intensive courses.
• Instructors reported that the hybrid course model allows them to accomplish course learning objectives more successfully than traditional courses do.
• Allows an instructor to teach to subject mastery without traditional class time constraints.
• Encourages integration of out-of-class activities with in-class activities to allow for more effective use of traditional class time.
• Most faculty noted increased interaction and contact among their students and between the students and themselves.
• Better able to approximate a "real world" writing environment, including collaboration.
• Faculty participants almost universally believe their students learned more in the hybrid format than they did in the traditional class sections.
• Instructors reported that students wrote better papers, performed better on exams, produced higher quality projects, and were capable of more meaningful discussions on course material.
• Additionally, by sequencing assignments so that they move students from significant discussion/responding online, through written reflections about their responses and the reading, to group or individual projects that are posted to a common learning space, such as a website or discussion board, for discussion and elaboration, teachers can have students engaged in doing, rather than just experiencing or reading.
• Students can view and review prerecorded lectures and access course notes and other materials such as course syllabus, assignment schedule, task sheets, grades, and so on.
• Students who rarely take part in classroom discussions are more likely to participate online, where they get time to think before they type and aren't put on the spot.
• Presents materials in a range of formats can help make sure every student is fully engaged in at least some class activities. Allows for auditory, visual, tactile learners.
• Research shows that student success rates in hybrid courses are "equivalent or slightly superior" to face-to-face courses, and that the hybrid courses have lower withdrawal rates than do fully online courses.