Based on the evaluation of the Teagle Foundation's Hybrid Learning and the Residential Liberal Arts Experience, program director Loni Bordoloi Pazich and external evaluators Martin Kurzweil and Daniel Rossman of Ithaka S+R distill key findings in this Change Magazine article. Take-aways include the following:
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Institutions should consider how hybrid learning approaches can enrich the curriculum, facilitate course-sharing between institutions, and make learning opportunities available to students that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
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Faculty engagement with technology prompted them to reevaluate their role and responsibility as instructors and helped them feel reenergized about their teaching – in both hybrid and traditional formats.
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Faculty need significant support to adopt hybrid approaches to learning beyond investments in technology and professional development. Institutions should consider investing in an instructional designer to assist faculty in choosing the right tools and with designing their courses.
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Students, like faculty, may need encouragement to participate in hybrid courses – but it pays off by enriching and diversifying the classroom experience.
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Successful hybrid course-sharing arrangements need a strong consortial backbone to identify strategic areas for cross-campus collaboration, to coordinate multiple stakeholders from registrars to department chairs, and to supply centralized support in the form of access to training and instructional designers.