Challenges of a Hybrid Course

Contributed by:

Jonathan James Thu, Jan 06, 2022 10:15 PM UTC

It deals with the various challenges faced by the teacher while having class-in-person and online at the same time.

1. Challenges of a Hybrid Course:
How do we accommodate in-person
and remote students at the same
Fariba Nosrati | PhD, MBA, MSc, BEng
Assistant Professor of Information Technology Management
Anisfield School of Business
May 24, 2021

2. n& Hybrid Lessons
Challenges
Backgroun Delivery Learned
d

3. &
Courses Class type Audience
• Info 224: Principles of IT • Computer labs • 80 students in three classes
• Info 311: Business Analytics II • Hands-on practice with various • Mixed levels
tools • Variety of backgrounds
• Class discussions & case studies
• Group work
• Student presentations
INFO 224 & INFO 311

4. Delivery Teaching on campus using a
WebEx room-kit to
accommodate students who
chose to participate remotely
Before COVID-19 Spring 2020 Fall 2020 Spring 2021
• Traditional F2F • F2F  Asynchronous • Virtual • Hybrid (F2F/Synchronous/
• In a computer lab (Synchronous/Asynchronous) Asynchronous)

5. Course structure
• Self study
• Readings (textbook, slides with embedded short videos)
• Virtual labs (short tutorials)
• Deliverables
Asynchronous • Weekly group activities
• Weekly individual assignments
• Weekly quizzes
• Group term paper/project
• Overview of the topic
• Discussion/Case studies
Synchronous • Hands-on lab demonstration/practice
• Student presentation

6. Course structure: Grade breakdown
Group; 44%
Team contract Quizzes
Group activities Individual; 56% Lab exercises
Group term Assignments
paper/project Participation
• Proposal
• Check-in
• Presentation
• Final paper

7. Canvas G-Suite TechSmith LucidChart Venngage WebEx
• Announcements • Communication Knowmia • Concept maps • Infographics • Room-kit
• Course • Concept maps
Course material
material • Teamwork
Teamwork • Create & share video • Synchronous
Synchronous
•• Discussion
Discussion •• Sharing
Sharing tutorials sessions
sessions
•• Quiz • Import
Import and
and share
share •• Hands
Hands on
on exercises
exercises
• Labs
Labs YouTube
YouTube short
short videos
videos •• Online
Online polls
polls
•• Assignment &
& tutorials
tutorials •• Student
Student
Assignment
•• Survey presentations
presentations
Survey
•• Office
Office hours
hours

8.  Room: computer lab (capacity was reduced to 14 students +
instructor)
 Students were able to choose their participation mode
(in-person/remote) at the beginning of the semester
 In each class:
 10-12 in-person students
 14-20 remote students
 Set-up the sessions using WebEx & WebEx room-kit
 Three back-to-back sessions in the same room

9. Overall feedback
 No complaint from remote students (felt like usual synchronous sessions)
“Always making the online students feel like there in class”
“Best feature of this course is that it can be online”
 In-person students were happy
“Having class in person and online at the same time was a great thing!”
“Best features of the course: Taught online and in person”
“What works well: Being able to come to class in person and learn in person”
“To be able to go to class in person is the best experience for me. I love it when I have the chance to get to the ASB building to
attend my class in person”
“This class is very hard for online delivery. We use Excel practice files to reference and follow along during class. It is difficult to
follow along on WebEx and do our own work using Excel. But it is much easier in-class with extra screen.”
 From the instructor perspective
 A different experience
 Technology was the least challenging issue
 Learning curve to structure and manage the class
 The in-class student were less distracted
 Top students were more likely to choose in-person participation

10. ts
 Flexibility
 Possible to have students in-person and online simultaneously
 Ease of access to course material
 Record the class and share

11. es
Class Student
Health &
Technical manageme engageme Group work
safety
nt nt

12. Technical Challenges
 Meeting invitation
 Google calendar: need to add participants one by one
 Starting the class
 Start the meeting using instructor station
 Then, use room kit to join as a participant
 Make sure participants are not muted!
 Some participant receiving the message that “The meeting has not
started yet” while some others were in the meeting!  remind &
invite from the meeting session after starting the meeting
 Audio
 A little low
 Difficult to hear in-class students at home
 Some audio glitches specifically when moving
 Other
 Whiteboard/projector screen not visible at home

13. Class management and student engagement
 Need to start the class early (computer set up, start meeting,
send reminder, connect room-kit, …)
 Difficult to monitor the chats, raised hands, and students in
class at the same time
 Had students open their mic to comment/ask question
 Student participation/discussion
 Students who usually speak up, will talk either in-person or online
 Students who usually do not participate will not talk anyway!
 The student who tends to use chat to participate will be missed
 Had to repeat/summarise class discussion for online students
 To share students’ work, had to ask all students to login into
WebEx even if they are in the classroom
 Need some class time to track attendance (the WebEx
participant list is not enough)

14. Group work
 In-class group work is very difficult in a hybrid
setting
 Group members were in-class and online
 Breakout rooms are not practical
 Had to ask all students to login into WebEx even
if they are in classroom, to share their group
activity results
 Group presentations were feasible (even with
mixed online and in-person group members)
 However, fully online and fully in-class presentations
were easier and more effective

15. Health & safety
× Wearing mask while teaching
 Students wearing mask all the time
 Very quiet campus: hallways and classes were very quiet and clean
 Cleaning between classes
 Each class had a cleaning log sheet on the door
 Sanitizer & wipes were available in each class
× Inconsistent communication regarding students getting exposed/infected
× Stressful to monitor students who cannot attend and when they are clear to attend
Vaccination will
resolve most
health & safety
concerns

16. Key challenges
 Class audio
 Group work
 Student
interaction/engagement

17.  Try the WebEx room-kit once before the start of semester
 Be flexible!
 Have a technical routine (e.g., start session early, send invitation
reminder after starting the meeting, record the meeting, share
recordings, …)
 Communication is the key (lots of communication!)
 Provide detailed guidelines (use several formats: Canvas, email,
announcement, in-class, ...)
 Involve students in fine-tuning the course delivery
 Monitor the class progress/delivery constantly

18.

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