Isn't it borning just sitting in a lecture hall, listening to a teacher read off his power point day after day? A new way professors are starting to teach their classes are by having hybrid courses. A hybrid course is a class that spends part of the instruction in a traditional lecture manner and part in an online environment.
Brian McFarlin, a professor at the University of Huston's Laboratory of Integrated Physiology decided to see what the difference in grades would be if taught half of his class online. In his 2004 to 2005 class there were three hundred forty six students that he taught in the regular face to face lecture. In his 2006 to 2007 class he had three hundred twelve students and they took the course in the hybrid format. The class had 1.5 hours in a lecture hall and 1.5 hours online. On average students who take the hybrid course had a 14 percent higher grade. Professor McFarlin used WebCT Vista to deliver the online portion of the class. He spent between 16 and 20 hours to complete each lecture online. This is much more time than he would have spent making a power point for a traditional lecture, but he says he can reuse much of the same information for other classes.
Brian Mcfarlin created power point files similar to the ones used in the traditional classes and narrated them using Articulate Studio. He also added learning games and tests to the websight. He also uploaded all in class lecture audio to WebCT for students to download in either WMA or MP3 format. This was only available to students who attended in-class lectures as an incentive to go to class.
There are many pros and cons to hybrid courses. Some pro's were that the grades were higher than just lecture hall classes. Also, only have 1.5 hours in the classroom a week allowed the classroom to be open for the Univeristy to offer more classes and use that classroom. One student said "I liked the fact that the class was hybrid, he gave you all the tools you could possibly imagine to be successful in this class. He was extremely knowledgeable about the subject, and I feel I was able to learn a great deal in here." Another student said "The availability of class material on WebCT contributed to my success in this course. Lecture audio was extremely helpful to review before exams."One con to hybrid courses is that it is difficult to confirm the identity of the studnet who is completing an assignment, and it takes a long time to create the online material. McFarlin said "I experienced a number of setbacks with the implementation of technology; however, in the end, I expanded my own instructional capacities and provided a better learning experience to my students.
Do you think that hybrid courses would be beneficial here at Western? Why or why not?
Whare are more pro's and con's to hybrid courses?
Sources
ESchool News
By: Meris Stansbury
