Hi, Hybrid (Classes That Is)!

In the many years of my college career, I have only had one hybrid course. Although it wasn’t an English class, it still proved to be a memorable and worthwhile experience on my teaching. For example, I was able to expand on both my face-to-face and written communication skills due to meeting with classmates in several different types of settings. Without that hybrid class, I may not be as open to teaching online as I am. 
       Due to this lone experience with hybrid courses, I would love to be able to teach a hybrid English course at my current university. After all, it blends the traditional English environment with the new and modern “classroom”. It is perfect for an extroverted teacher/student who likes technology like me. It could also work for students who are willing to try online classes but don’t want to cut the ties to the seated class. Fortunately there is some evidence to fact up that assumption. In his book Teaching Writing Online, Scott Warnock argues that “Hybrid courses provide students with the weekly structure of seeing (and being accountable) to a teacher while still enjoying the advantages of online tools” (14). I absolutely agree with this assertion. Hybrid classes have the potential to be a win-win for both students and teachers, especially in a composition setting. 
     Now, my opinion may not be shared with many in my line of work. Their main concern may be that the disruption of the writing environment that teachers work so hard to cultivate amongst their students. These fears could be based on the fact that it is hard to determine what could be done as a class meeting face-to-face and what can be done as an online class meeting. But, this panic can be easily calmed. Warnock offers one salve to the nerves of these instructions by claiming that:
  Although many hybrid courses seem to be a fifty-fifty split between online and onsite modalities, you can decide what  constitutes each half. For instance, in a hybrid, you can use the onsite part of the course for much of your instructional communication, including discussions about tasks, guidelines, expectations, and due dates. Having received their instructions from you, students can then venture into the online portion of the course to do the rest of their work for the week (15).
  I like this idea, especially the fact that Warnock emphasizes that it is up to the teacher’s discretion. What works for one teacher may not work for another. However, what worries me is what works for my students. For example, I may try to do peer review online but my students may struggle with doing that assignment online because it lacks that personal touch of asking your peers in person what they meant by a certain critique in real time. But, one of the big things to learn about teaching is that fact that one has to be flexible. Your perfect lesson plans that you spend hours and hours plotting out can blow up in your face if your students don’t react to it in a positive manner. So, if I were to teach hybrid courses, I would have to play it by ear for the first couple of weeks, just to see the type of class I have. Will they be a talkative class or would they rather do solo activities? Once you get a sense for how the class will go, you can be able to formulate how to exactly break down your class activities between onsite and online. 
   After figuring out what the atmosphere of that particular class is, I would use a slight variation on Warnock’s example. I would definitely use the onsite class period to discuss important deadlines, project requirements, and other expectations that they should be aware of for the week. But, I would also use onsite class time to do peer review and other small group activities to ensure that a sense of community is established. I would then use the online class time to do discussion boards, journals, and quizzes along with other class work that can be done by not meeting as a group. That way, the class would be able to develop a strong sense of community and a strong sense of individualism at the same time. That growing idea of duality in students taking hybrids may be the best thing to come out of hybrid classes- by being able to adapt to two different classroom settings, they are able to grow as an adult and a student, which is exactly what happened to me. 

Works Cited
Warnock, Scott. Teaching Writing Online: How and Why. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2009. Print. 

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog. This blog will be a chronicle of my adventures in the exciting world of academia. My first full post will be up by the end of the week. I hope to see you then!