Hybrid Definitions and Strategies

Teaching Modalities

There are two possible modalities for teaching hybrid courses for the Fall 2021 semester:

  1. Blended instruction includes a combination of in-person and out-of-class learning activities, the latter often occurring online. The term is often used to describe a course that blends synchronous in-person instruction on some days with synchronous online instruction on other days.
  2. Concurrent instruction is used to describe a classroom mode in which in-person students and online students are present at the same time. A common example of concurrent instruction is HyFlex. In HyFlex, students are able to choose their mode of engagement for each class period. Other types of concurrent instruction might assign students to a particular mode or default to certain modes based on the location of students.

Table of Contents

Teaching Modalities 

Blended Approach
Concurrent Approach
Further Reading and Resources

Blended Approach

If you are teaching using a blended approach, keep the following good practices in mind, especially when creating asynchronous activities:

  • Be specific in your prompts and directions. Don’t just say “annotate”—make clear to your students exactly what they’re being asked to do. Share an example, if possible. This is especially important since students don’t have the typical before- and after-class opportunities to ask for clarification.
  • Model the kinds of comments and engagement you want to see from the students. VoiceThread is a great example, because you can demonstrate examples of good participation first, showing the students what a response should look and sound like while also explaining the activity.
  • Explicitly connect activities to each other and make these connections visible to your students. Make sure you tell students, either before or after, why they did the activity, and explicitly address how it prepares them for the next step in their learning, which may be synchronous or asynchronous.

Tools to Consider

  • Google Docs is a low-threshold technology with which most students are already familiar and a solid means for collaborative annotation. You can not only limit the docs availability exclusively to enrolled students, but can also limit students’ annotation to “comment only,” thus avoiding accidental changes to the text itself.
  • If what you want the students to interact with course materials more visual in nature, you can create a VoiceThread assignment where you can create a short video of you annotating a document, image, chart, or graph, and students can leave their own asynchronous audio or video comments,and annotations. This creates a kind of visual “conversation” between the students and yourself about the content.
  • Hypyothes.is allows for students to collaboratively annotate web pages and PDFs, meaning that you can see not only if they are reading course materials, but also how they are reading the materials. Instructors and students can leave multimedia annotations on web texts and PDFs as well as interact with each other’s annotations. Hypothes.is integrated in Canvas and may be activated through assignments.
  • Create pre-recorded lectures with embedded questions in Panopto. It is important to remember a few things when pre-recording lecture videos:
  • Shorter is better. Videos should focus on one topic, and ideally be less than ten minutes. Always keep your students’ learning experience in mind—they won’t sit, focused, for an hour lecture video. 
  • Strongly consider writing a script for your lectures. CNDLS has provided a helpful guide and mini-webinar on why and how to script, but it will save you time in the long run and make a more engaging and focused video for the students.
  • Stick to information that doesn’t change. Pre-recorded lecture videos are not the time to be timely—record the material that is a constant so that the videos can be reused. This also helps keep them short and focused, and thus more engaging. 
  • Videos are great when you want to combine your voice with visuals, but if you are looking to just deliver audio content, consider a podcast. Zoom allows you to download the audiotracks of any recorded Zoom meeting,  including options to identify separate speakers, which can be used to create an audio podcast. These can be useful for expert interviews, narratives, panel discussions, or modeling a close reading. Podcasts require less internet bandwidth than a video, and students can listen to them while multitasking. 
  • Use Canvas Discussion Boards robustly.  A host of research demonstrates the effectiveness of discussion boards in improving student engagement and outcomes (Darabi, Lieberman, Page). Consensus exists that requiring students to respond to each other while lowering instructor presence leads to more active and student-driven inquiries in virtual discussion spaces. Also consider how to use discussion boards creatively: by embedding images or media, students can respond to a substantive curricular component. The discussion board could even be the center of a content unit and form the basis for later synchronous sessions.
  • Canvas Groups feature: Discussions may be limited to a small group who can interact with each other and the instructor only (i.e. not available to the full course roster). This option may be preferable for large classes or for students collaborating on  group projects. 
  • Canvas Quizzes—Not just for Quizzing! In addition to exams of all formats, Canvas Quizzes can be used for class activities as well as both formative and summative assessments. Familiarize yourself with the many questions types and features of Canvas Quizzes and get creative.  For example, using the “Ungraded” option (called “Surveys”) creates low-stakes ways for students to convey what they already know, identify areas for clarification, or alternatively, expose students to a high volume of information quickly.  Another use of the Quiz feature can be to pose questions and offer answer choices that are all correct, in order to collect information about which areas students most need to discuss, or demonstrate the many ways in which a question can be answered. This approach can lay the groundwork for a short lecture, open up areas for further discussion, provide information about areas of confusion for students, and/or plant the seeds about the many ways to answer the question.

Concurrent Approach

Since it’s not possible to share a paper or look at the same computer, students will need to use digital tools to collaborate.

If you are teaching using concurrent instruction, keep these HyFlex teaching strategies in mind:

  1. Consider using peer-learning, peer-teaching (pairs may be easier than larger groups)
  2. Use polling software.
  3. Use brainstorming tools that allow users to submit text or graphics to a communal whiteboard, such as the Google Jamboard app, or the shared whiteboard in Zoom.
  4. Conduct breakout groups using collaborative tools such as Google Docs. Rather than speak, groups of students would interact via chat, on a document, etc.
  5. Provide individual whiteboards (or ask students to bring their own). They can solve problems and/or write answers down and hold them up. If students need to share these whiteboards, sanitation would have to be considered. Students may choose to use their phones as document cameras.
  6. Create discussion groups in Canvas or Google Docs, then ask students in each group to discuss a prompt and then share the agreed-upon solution with the class at large.
  7. Use the fish bowl method. One group of students can role play or mime a solution (from a safe distance and within view of the camera) as others watch, interpret, critique, etc.
  8. Consider ways to have digital back-channel options (like Slack, zoom chat, padlet) for full group discussions. Where appropriate, these environments can serve as a virtual alternative to whispering/note-passing during class and a low-stakes way for students to stay connected to one another outside of class.
  9. Advance planning on how to integrate these two groups is essential. Try to plan activities that help you see and engage with both groups of students, or that help them engage with each other.  
  10. Pair online students with f2f students as continuous partners throughout the semester in order to help catch any questions that arise either during or after class. For example, in-person students might help interject on behalf of their partners during class when they have a question or comment.
  11. Plan transitions and activities further in advance.
  12. Enlist students as partners and co-creators. Ensure activities that allow for participation by all members: digital presentations, etc.

Further Reading and Resources

More on Hybrid and Hyflex Teaching Practices

In-person students engage with an in-person professor leads a discussion with online students.