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A visually structured approach to learning design to think through and support your students’ learning

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UCL training program - Blended and Online Learning Design

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UCL training program - Blended and Online Learning Design

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Blended and Online Learning Design - Teaching Course Online - FutureLearn

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Get to grips with the skills you need to teach blended and online learning across all subject areas on this comprehensive course from the UCL Institute of Education.

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With questions about campus re-openings looming (and changing by the day), many educators have found themselves planning-perhaps for the first time-hybrid courses that will mix remote and in-person sessions. In many cases, these educators are quickly learning that designing a course that's equally effective for students in the classroom and in their living rooms can be daunting.

As a seasoned online instructor, I have navigated the unique challenges and opportunities hybrid courses present. And I've emerged on the other side facilitating successful classroom experiences that allow my students to engage and thrive.

Let's first dig into what exactly we mean by hybrid classes. Then, I'll share some recommendations for how to design and teach in hybrid environments-including some helpful dos and don'ts and a sample assessment approach.

What Exactly Does Hybrid Mean? Expand Your Thinking

While hybrid approaches aren't new, with the move en masse to online teaching, there are more ways to think about them. Here are a few different definitions. Determining which apply to your specific circumstance will impact what material you'll include in your course, and how.

In person and online: What most people think of as a hybrid format is having a combination of online learners and people in a physical room, in person, where you can see them-even if it's at a distance of six feet, or two meters.

Let's break this down even further, as each distinction has a huge impact on your teaching plan for the moment, your pedagogy in general, and your curriculum overall. Consider a scenario in which there's a separation in student experience: Half of your students only log in remotely, and they're going to engage with each other in a virtual classroom. Then you have some students who are physically in the classroom together. But there's no mix between the virtual and in-person students. This impacts your choices around team projects and group work in general-think through how you will arrange breakout groups, discussion groups, or any type of activity that requires interaction between students.

Synchronous and asynchronous: Planning for a live online session is very different from thinking about content that is going to be delivered asynchronously. With a synchronous session, you can plan for an hour and a half, maybe two hours tops, of online simultaneous participation, with learners all logging in at the same time. You have discussions, polls, Q&As, debates, breakout rooms, and all other kinds of tools at your disposal. And that variety should be part of your course design: how do you take advantage of everybody's presence at the same moment in time? You have a live cohort, which experiences something unique together, and this is going to be different from students who watch the recording later.

Conversely, material taught asynchronously, be it through videos, assessments, quizzes, or competitions, is typically chunked much smaller. You want to keep your videos short; you want to keep articles around a five- to seven-minute read; and you want to really focus on keeping your learners engaged in multiple mediums.

Traditional and flipped classrooms: A less common way of understanding hybrid classes focuses on the distinction between theory and practice-when to teach theoretical concepts versus exercises and putting things into practice with a hands-on component. A traditional classroom does theory together, while students explore practice on their own. And in a flipped classroom, students learn the theory by themselves and then come to the classroom to practice together.

Lecture based and student centered: Who's leading the conversation, you or your students? Knowing whether you will have lecture- or student-centered discussions will make a difference for your ultimate curriculum and for the delivery mode that you choose. For instance, if you choose to do more lectures, then you can have a simulcast with a combination of some students in one room and another bunch of students in a different room. But if you're doing a discussion, you can't really do simulcast mode because you want each individual to have the opportunity to raise their hand and participate, and so on.

As you begin to design your curriculum, you can draw from these various approaches at the broader course level-this is a mix of in-person and online students following the flipped classroom model-and at the individual session level-this will be a synchronous, student-led class.

"When putting your course together, think in terms of what students are going to do or deal with on any given day; ensure you're planning a course that varies the student experience."

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Designing an Effective Hybrid Course: Mix It Up

When putting your course together, think in terms of what students are going to do or deal with on any given day; ensure you're planning a course that varies the student experience. Breaking down the course design into smaller individual components can help prevent you from getting overwhelmed.

Use videos for asynchronous learning. My students have access to videos using Canvas as our learning management system, which is where they get most of their theory. Rather than relying too heavily on textbooks and requiring too much reading, I mix it up with short videos that students can watch over and over.

As educators, we want to make the most of our time. With video, you can take material out of the classroom, so that students can approach it asynchronously on their own, leaving synchronous sessions for discussion and debate.

Labs let students learn independently, together. We also have self-paced labs, where the students, on their own or with a partner, work through code or an assignment that was given during a synchronous session. It may sound like an odd combination-a live session with students working independently-but it allows them to learn at their own pace while fostering a sense of community. The students loved it.

I can then pop in breakout rooms -either virtually or in person-to check how students are doing and see if they have any questions. Every once in a while, come together as a group and spend 10 minutes debriefing to solidify those lessons they learned on their own. At the end of the lab, ask a student to send a solution with the steps included, then you can share it with the rest of the class. That way, they also have some resolution at the end of the lab sessions, driven from the students.

Case studies drive class discussion. The class relies heavily on case studies, which are inspired by practice: real companies, real data, real problems that protagonists face across all areas of expertise. This is an example of how you can weave in practice and theory-videos for the theory, case studies for the practice.

Case studies involve a lot of discussion and debate, for which I used a platform called Ment.io. The platform really allows students to think about how persuasive they are and quantify how much people agree or disagree with their critical decisions. Students express an opinion related to a case study and others use Ment.io to vote that opinion up or down, eventually creating these networks of students that would often agree or disagree. I can then start forming conversations around those groups. Ment.io is just one of many tools out there; what matters is bringing that discussion and debate that's such an essential part of case teaching into the classroom.

Coding dojos allow students to learn from one another. My analytics class has a coding element, for which students are encouraged to develop a "coding dojo" mindset, inspired by martial arts. It's an immersive experience where one or two people are "in the dojo," debating, discussing, and trying things out, and the others are watching, providing input, supporting, and encouraging. Then we take turns and somebody else shares their screen and is in the dojo. It's a student-led approach that allows them to understand their capabilities in a constructive environment.

If your class doesn't feature coding, you can still use the dojo model for when a class explores practice. I supply all the guidelines to the exercise in advance so students can go through it all before class and come ready to engage in a conversation.

Bringing It All Together: A Sample Hybrid Curriculum

Here's a view of my entire curriculum, just to give you a sense of what I cover in my class.

There are a few specific things that are important in this design, even if you're planning a course in a different domain.

1. Front-load individual learning. When I'm sending students into two-person breakout rooms for lab work, I have to choose the material so it's digestible for them to do on their own. Once they get a better grasp of things, we move toward group discussions so courses are heavier on the labs at the beginning when we're just getting started, with fewer and fewer labs toward the end.

2. Build toward final group projects. I allot sessions toward the end of the course to allow groups to work on their final projects. You don't have to devote a lot of time to this, just be conscious of students' practical concerns-W hen do they get together? How do they meet? How are they going to present their results and their work to the entire class? -and give them time.

3. Keep it fresh. We have frequent competitions, combining the asynchronous with the synchronous, mixing learners that can be there in person with learners who are at home. When designing a course, it's important to ask yourself, When can I insert games, activities, hackathons, anything that breaks the monotony of the flow? Every few weeks, do something different: a simulation, an exercise, a group presentation, a competition. These things keep excitement and engagement up.

Hybrid Teaching Dos and Don'ts

Here's what works for me.

1. Do focus on preparation. When you're planning your course, always ask yourself, What are my students doing to prepare for class? Let's assume that you're going to have a synchronous session with some students in class and others joining remotely. One way to ensure that everybody shows up ready to get cold called-regardless of whether they're in the room or not-is by ensuring they were assigned a deliberate quantity of prep work. It doesn't have to be too much, just meaningful enough that it enables them to come to class and directly talk about it. We want to make sure that students who are joining either remotely or in person are engaged and ready to have a conversation and ask those questions they need an answer to.

When you think about the prep, think about all kinds of things that you can have them do: traditional material such as academic articles, news, and online textbooks; and you can also mix it up with things like games, pictures, and competitions.

2. Do keep classes varied. Break your class into different components and try to keep it moving. Spend a few minutes in breakout rooms, then show a video, then have a student share their screen. Don't linger on any one component for too long.

3. Do allow time to form connections. After class, you want to encourage students to reflect on the material, which allows for that higher level of engagement to bring in the continuous connection that we are losing a little bit in the virtual world. Those reflections can be done through Slack or any other chat platform, or it can be as simple as starting the next class with takeaways from the previous one. You want to create a link so it's easy for students to feel like they belong, like they are part of the course.

Here are some approaches you might want to avoid, or at least think about a little bit more in terms of execution.

1. Don't assign too much reading. Remember that PDFs can be exhausting on the eyes. You can only read so much.

2. Don't get caught up on the tech. It's fine to experiment with teaching tools, but take it gradually; see what works, and don't try too much too soon. Simplicity has a lot of power. If there's a student you haven't heard from for a while, you can send them a little message in the chat and let them know you're going to invite them into the conversation. Even online, engagement doesn't necessarily have to be heavy on the technology; it's all about what gives you the confidence to focus on the content, and not on all the other things that we have in front of us right now.

3. Don't try to cover too much. Plan for less. If you're really engaging with the students in a hybrid model, that will typically slow you down to the point where you have to consider other ways of delivering the content that will complement the session. Just be thoughtful about that. Don't expect to cover everything that you would normally cover. Plan differently and assign certain activities in different ways so that students feel satisfied that they will walk away having learned something and not feel rushed out the door.

Assessing Students in a Hybrid Environment

Assessment is far from the most important part of a strong course, but it's definitely critical for the students. Here's how I assess students.

Class contribution: 40%. That's a relatively high percentage for class contribution. And in a virtual world, time will be tight. You'll probably hear folks say (and it's true!) that when you're teaching online, you can't necessarily get through the same amount of material. So students have to find a way to contribute. Think about using chat or Q&A tools and count those good contributions in the chat in the contribution grade. I started a Slack channel for my students to encourage them to post, and I give them class participation credit for it.

Individual take-home assignment: 20%. This is done outside of class on their own. It's fairly straightforward, but still, I needed to plan how students are going to get to a point at which they can execute on this assignment.

Group projects: 40%. Students self-select into groups of four to five students with diverse sets of experience. Then students can do their presentation sessions online (poster sessions don't work anymore!) and from different locations. This has proven tremendously exciting-students share their screens, we can have the chat answering questions running in parallel, and it's a seamless experience. It's a very efficient way to transmit the knowledge that they accumulate, and everyone really impresses their classmates. Seeing students embrace the model and all that it has to offer is very exciting.

Not everything that worked here for designing and teaching will be exactly what will work for you. Take it in, and then think about how these lessons are going to be applicable, exciting, or relevant for your course. Experiment with it a couple times, and if you don't think it works, pivot to something else.

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With questions about campus re-openings looming (and changing by the day), many educators have found themselves planning-perhaps for the first time-hybrid courses that will mix remote and in-person sessions. In many cases, these educators are quickly learning that designing a course that's equally effective for students in the classroom and in their living rooms can be daunting.

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A hybrid learning course takes the "best of both worlds" by combining the best of face-to-face learning with the best of online learning. Technology may better facilitate some types of learning, and class time can be shortened and/or used for activities that better lend themselves to face-to-face interaction. An integrated course model supports a more diverse range of learners by offering flexibility, more options for learning, and integration of activities that lead to deeper learning. These are just a few techniques that instructors have used to design hybrid learning courses.

How to Design a Hybrid Learning Course

Questions to ask:

What do you want your students to be able to do, know, or value as a result of taking your class?

What learning activities or assessments will provide students with opportunities to develop or demonstrate achievement of the course learning outcomes?

Which of these learning activities or assessments would best lend themselves to an online format and which to a face-to-face format? What combination of online and in-class activities would best address the course teaching and learning objectives?

Online Learning Activities

Work collaboratively - Wikis and blogs allow students to collaborate in a flexible manner with fewer time and space restrictions. Have students compile a course glossary together, or work in groups to produce a proposal. Collaborative writing exposes students to various writing styles and approaches and provides them with more feedback on their own writing and ideas.

Prepare for in-class activities - In addition to assigning readings, providing some course content online through video tutorials or documentaries, for example, allows students to preview course material visually. Requiring students to take an online quiz before attending class can be a source of motivation while providing instant feedback regarding their understanding of the material.

Engage all students in discussions - Offering students the opportunity to discuss online accommodates a variety of learning preferences. Asynchronous (not confined by time) discussions allow students time to think and reflect before responding. Online discussions are also documented so students and instructors can always view, evaluate, and build on all contributions.

Develop self-assessment and peer assessment skills - Online assessment tools facilitate ease in giving and receiving feedback. Assignments can be posted online, and students can post instant responses or email their feedback.

In-Class Learning Activities

Pick one or two samples of online student work to discuss in more detail in class.

Have students present research findings through a presentation or conduct lab experiments.

Utilize active learning techniques such as composing quick writing responses, working in pairs to answer questions, searching online for relevant information or clarification, or simply having students compare their notes with or quiz their neighbor.

Prepare students for collaborative work with team-building activities that allow students to get to know each other, set expectations, and make work plans. For example, groups can create their own processes and procedures for when/if they encounter group problems.

Integrating Online Assignments with In-Class Activities

When reviewing or designing a hybrid learning course, ask how the online and face-to-face components work together to address the learning outcomes, accommodate various learning modalities, allow students to engage with the course content in meaningful ways, and lead to deeper learning.

Some examples of integrating online and in-class activities:

Online activities can prepare students for in-class activities and vice versa - Students work online on group projects and then meet face-to-face to plan and rehearse their final group project presentation.

Interacting with content online can prepare students for in-class discussion - Students review content (readings, videos, etc.) and then take an online test before attending the class in which they discuss or debate topics.

Online interactions can reinforce or extend those that occur in the classroom and vice versa - Students provide feedback to each other online and then respond to the feedback in face-to-face sessions. Or students finish a discussion online that started in class.

Let online student work inform your lecture - For example, have students post key definitions online for the whole class to edit and refine. Before class, review these, and pick one or two that deserve discussion; address learning issues or best practices (Sands, 2002).

Getting Started with Hybrid Learning

Start small - create one online assignment in a semester and gradually add more.

Consider time-on-task for both online and in-class activities; make sure the online components do not simply make the course more time-intensive.

Hybrid vs. Traditional Learning Overview

Component

Traditional Learning

Hybrid Learning

Instructor Role

Authority

Assesses with quizzes, tests, and papers a few times a semester ("high-stakes" grading)

Facilitator

Guides students in learning

Provides frequent feedback with many small assessments

Student Role

Attend class

Do homework

Take tests

Depend on the instructor to cover material;

Individual or collaborative work

More responsibility for learning

Learning Environment

Class lectures

Perhaps some material is posted or organized online

Class time shortened and/or used more for interactive learning activities

Class activities partially online and partially face-to-face

In-Class Time

Class time primarily used for lecturing

Less time lecturing

More time engaging in active learning activities such as problem-solving, group work, case studies, or presentation

Out-of-Class Time

Group assignments

Studying for quizzes, mid-terms, and exams

Reading text book and other course materials

Online learning activities.

Online discussions and providing feedback to others' posts

Watching videos

Reading or searching for materials

Online quizzes

Posting reading responses

Collaborative writing assignments with wikis and blogs

How can I Prepare Students for Hybrid Learning?

Explain the rationale for using a hybrid learning approach and list the learning benefits (expect some resistance as students are pushed out of their learning comfort zones).

Provide an orientation to the technology required in the course and inform students of where to go for additional support.

Start with a "low-stakes" assignment to familiarize students with what is expected.

Discuss time management strategies and communicate expected time-on-task for online learning activities.

Have students create a learning plan for the course.

Explain how students will be assessed and what kind of feedback they can expect from you and their peers.

Provide structure for online activities. For discussions, assign students to respond to certain posts, or for peer feedback, provide guidelines or a rubric.

What can I do With Extra Class Time?

With a hybrid learning format, it is advantageous to have students engage with course content online, leaving more time in class for active learning. In addition to providing students opportunities to engage with the material in meaningful ways and to interact with classmates in their learning community, class time can be used to:

Assess student learning more often with classroom assessment techniques. Using index cards, ask students to apply a concept to a real-world situation, or have them write down the most important point of the class and collect their answers to assess their comprehension. Using hands or classroom polling, have students answer multiple-choice questions to gauge understanding.

Provide more feedback by walking around and answering student questions as they work through and get stuck on problems. Before you answer questions, consider posing the question to the group first.

Resources

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Getting Started with Designing a Hybrid Learning Course

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A hybrid learning course takes the "best of both worlds" by combining the best of face-to-face learning with the best of online learning. Technology may better facilitate some types of learning, and class time can be shortened and/or used for activities that better lend themselves to face-to-face interaction.

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https://www.epfl.ch/education/teaching/
https://tll.mit.edu/teaching-resources/how-to-teach/
https://www.ntu.edu.sg/education/teaching-learning/teaching-and-learning-resources
https://unips.fi/
Learning styles

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Inventory of tools used in EuroTeQ universities in online/hybrid course

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Inventory of tools used in EuroTeQ universities in online/hybrid course

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Important check-list for all EuroTeQ courses

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Important check-list for all EuroTeQ courses

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Things to concider when (re)designing a course

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Things to concider when (re)designing a course

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Guidelines for teachers_How to prepare for the EuroTeQ course catalog course

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https://haka.ee/wp-content/uploads/Self-evaluation-criteria-11.2021_EN.pdf

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Five Recommendations for Faculty Considering Multimodal Instruction

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Five Recommendations for Faculty Considering Multimodal Instruction

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Faculty Support in HE Provided by University Administration

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Faculty Support in HE Provided by University Administration

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TU/e's support material for teaching personell

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TU/e's support material for teaching personell

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11 things to consider when moving your course online

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11 things to consider when moving your course online

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The 7 steps for designing activities in hybrid courses

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The 7 steps for designing activities in hybrid courses

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Hybrid learning is an ever-growing strategy that seeks to provide teachers and students with the best of both worlds by combining face-to-face instruction with asynchronous digital activities and resources that students consult or perform autonomously.

When designing a hybrid course, however, one of the main concerns that can arise is how to design the activities in this still relatively unfamiliar format. So, here I share seven steps for designing activities in a hybrid course.

Begin by defining which activity would be relevant for the development of competencies or achievement of learning objectives. Advances in technology and the rise of new educational trends have made it possible to implement almost any type of activity we can imagine, as long as we consider that virtual and face-to-face environments must be, by design, connected to each other. Therefore, the activities can be as varied as the course and its objectives merit. Examples of activities include: case analysis, research, debates, projects, presentations, essays and experiments.

2. Break the activity into small steps

Breaking down the activity into small steps allows you to identify the general process that the student/s should follow. At this stage, it is crucial to consider all the elements of the teaching-learning process that apply to the activity. These might include: acquire the theoretical knowledge; practise knowledge; gather information; search for solutions; make decisions; assess knowledge; share results; and reflect on own learning (metacognition).

3. Define when and how learning will occur

It is now time to reflect and decide on which steps will be carried out under the direct guidance of the teacher and which steps will be carried out outside the classroom with the support of technology.

Although we may think this is a simple decision, it can be a tough call for many because it often involves breaking our own paradigms in terms of what is worthwhile for us, as teachers, to say or do within face-to-face sessions. Yet the real challenge arises when we become aware that the hybrid modality involves truly optimising the time spent face to face, while simultaneously attempting to strengthen what the student can learn and achieve without a teacher's supervision.

Define, select and/or create the resources that will be useful for the activity, such as documents, readings, videos and tools.

5. Write instructions for the students

Armed with the knowledge that multiple elements of an activity will occur outside the classroom without the direct supervision of the teacher, the teacher must provide students with an essential aspect of hybrid: clear and detailed activity instructions. I recommend you make these available in a digital space of the course.

When writing the instructions for an activity, you should provide:

modality (individual or collaborative)

instructions on what the student will have to do

sources from which the student can obtain information to carry out the activity (such as book chapters, articles or videos)

expected final product (document, video, live debate, etc)

evaluation specifications: rubric or checklist that will be used to grade the activity.

6. Share the activity and its resources

At this stage, you need to place the activity's instructions and resources within a digital space, thus ensuring that all the materials required to complete the activity are available at all times.

7. Implement and follow up

It seems obvious, but it is crucial to communicate (clearly!) to the students where the instructions and resources will be located. Equally crucial is following up on the activity. It is often useful to keep track of the doubts and difficulties that arise in the group in order to determine if the instructions and resources were adequate and thus where they can be improved.
Laura Patricia Zepeda Orantes is leader of pedagogical models innovation at Monterrey Institute of Technology. If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the THE Campus newsletter .

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The 7 steps for designing activities in hybrid courses

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Hybrid learning is an ever-growing strategy that seeks to provide teachers and students with the best of both worlds by combining face-to-face instruction with asynchronous digital activities and resources that students consult or perform autonomously. When designing a hybrid course, however, one of the main concerns that can arise is how to design the activities in this still relatively unfamiliar format.