This post is written by members Jason Snart and Joanna Paull, who published Making Hybrids Work: An Institutional Framework for Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education through NCTE.
In an ever-changing higher education landscape, one that seems to become increasingly more fluid and “disrupted” by the day, colleges are faced with the challenge of innovating to meet student needs and to meet institutional objectives. It is in this context that hybrid (aka blended) learning–a delivery mode that combines online and face-to-face instruction–can provide a promising framework for meaningful curricular innovation. However, as hybrid learning continues to gain visibility across higher education, and as its blend of both online and face-to-face learning becomes more attractive for more teachers, institutional stakeholders will need to collaborate to design a broad framework for hybrid curriculum development.
Making Hybrids Work provides a much needed resource for any institution looking to create a vigorous hybrid curriculum. We argue that to make hybrid teaching and learning truly effective and sustainable, institutions must develop a shared vision for their hybrid curriculum—a vision that includes administrators, learner support, faculty, staff, and students.
The book explores the roles of institution-wide planning, professional development training, and support as it builds and grows. After all, it is only with a shared institutional vision and a solid foundation of training that hybrids can flourish as a truly robust component of an institution’s curricular existence.
Jason Snart, NCTE member since 2011, is a professor of English at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL. He teaches a range of composition, literature, and creative writing courses across a variety of delivery modes including face-to-face, online, and hybrid. Find him on Twitter: @ProfessorSnart
Joanna Paull, NCTE member since 2001, is a professor of English at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, OH. She teaches the composition sequence as well as the film courses and instructs in the face-to-face, hybrid and online environments.