The Shift to Online and Hybrid Courses

Over the last couple weeks I have been interviewing some professors that have all been speaking about how to take a class that is strictly taught in a regular classroom and make parts of it online. This has many advantages, including freeing up classroom space, and letting commuting students not have to come to campus to take certain classes. However, there still is not enough evidence to claim that a hybrid course, which consists of one part of the course being online and the other parts in classroom, is as effective as being in the classroom with the professor themselves. Some results from trials of these classes showed students in the hybrid type courses doing more poorly, though why this has occurred is unknown. It could be that the professor sees the students in the hybrid course less, and therefore grades them more harshly. It is also possible that the students are not focusing on the subject matter when they are at home as opposed to in a classroom. Regardless of these trials, some professors are pushing ahead with their classes and preparing different models of a hybrid course to see what is effective, and what is not. The results of these classes could either make or break the hybrid course idea, and the more research and practical application that is done would mean constructing a more solid template of what one would look like, and how it would work.

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