Our Approach to Hybrid Learning

Hybrid has several definitions, including blended learning, all of which include the coming togther of student online with those on campus in a synchronous mode. The workshop catered to both on campus and online – althouhg out of 40 registrations about 28 preferred to attend online.

For online we use the tool Engageli which is now a ‘business as usual’ learning environment at UniSQ. We ran the workshop through a Padlet that provided the ‘slide‘ feature and linked to all resources and collaborative docs. Participants on cmapus were asked to bring laptops and earbuds/headphones and we sat at two round tables connected to hte online participants. After careful juggling of audio to avoid feedback the workshop ran successfully.

It is important to not treat the two different groups of participants separately when teaching in hybrid. All had access to the chat facility (backchannel opportunity) for comments and conversation. At first we had the online and on campus at separate tables in Engageli – however as the workshop progressed we mixed up the modes and full interactive and collaborative learning took place.

In retrospect it was actually hard work managing the hybrid classroom – and both Lisa and I worked together on this. A single instructor would find it more difficult doing what we did. We believe true collaborative hybrid learning does not take place often because of pedagogical constraints that could be overcome with more practice and support for academics.

Of note is the fact Lisa and I did not stand ‘in front’ of the class/workshop and did not have slides on the overhead projector/wall. I struggled to find an image for this blog post as most showed an instructor in front of the class with different versions of in-person and virtual participants. Out approach was more holistic and less teacher-centred.