5 Tips for Effective Hybrid Teaching
The challenges of Hybrid learning and teaching and how to make this new way of learning a success
Hybrid learning environments are more widely used these days, especially in the wake of the global pandemic. This does not just affect the lives of student events and social life, but also their academics and the educational system as a whole. Schools and universities have had to adapt rapidly to not teaching their students in person.
Now that things are changing once more with new social distancing guidelines, we have to adapt to the challenge of teaching students simultaneously in person and online. Often with these abrupt changes, the quality of learning and teaching can decrease and so new approaches must be sought out and implemented rapidly.
Instructors who usually teach with a fully populated classroom need to manage the students’ work and their classroom technology completely differently. Likewise, students have to learn effectively via hybrid instruction, even if this is not always ideal for the course content or what they are used to.
These challenges that both instructors and students face are why more and more universities and schools turn to Hybrid models. After interviewing one of the Geneva Business School instructors, Roberta Giannini, we will tackle the most prominent issues. Read on for tips that both instructors and students can use.
What is Hybrid learning? Hybrid learning or teaching is finding the right mix (anewspring.com, Driesen, 2016) of education and learning, whether online or offline. Here the goal is to give the best possible opportunity for students to learn the information most effectively.
An instructor on the Barcelona campus, Roberta Giannini calls Hybrid learning "the third leg of education. Before we had in-person education for the classroom, then we transitioned to the theory of mind. Then COVID-19 brings us this opportunity to try to match the hybrid experimentation, and it was really experimentation." Teachers and instructors have to find a way to combine both face-to-face and online.
Here are a few tips on how to improve the learning process:
Tip 1: Keep the cameras on
Students that are joining classes online are always tempted to turn off their cameras and use their time they should be used to paying attention. This is not just to help students focus but also a huge help for instructors and professors to read and react to body language. Making sure that students are effectively online learning is an important first step. We want to engage students well and when we can see them it makes it easier to identify.
Tip 2: Manage your time in the classroom wisely
Tip 3: Use technology to be more inclusive!
There are several other tools and add-ons available that help getting students to be more active. These range from videos to interactive Mindmaps like Jamboards to quizzes and polls. Google Meet and Zoom often have a small form like these included but a highly recommended website that makes quizzes and polls fun is Mentimeter. The free platform helps keep students engaged, they are extremely easy to use and it includes both online and offline students.
Gif from www.mentimeter.com
Tip 4: Practice makes perfect
Tip 5: Feedback is the only way we learn
Want to find out more about our Campuses and our hybrid classroom infrastructure?
Take a look at our Geneva campus tour, Barcelona campus tour, and our Madrid campus tour.