‘Hybrid’ Teaching Seeks to End the Divide Between Traditional and Online Instruction

By blending approaches, colleges hope to save money and meet students’ needs

Walter Cummins, an English professor sporting a gray beard and a tweed jacket,

began to tell a meandering anecdote during a Friday morning class at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s campus here. Several students exhibited classic signs of tuning out. One stared out the window, while another picked at her fingernails distractedly.

Moments like this make some professors and education-technology experts wonder: Would it be more effective to replace some traditional class meetings -- or even whole courses -- with online sessions? After all, in a virtual classroom, students can log in when it is convenient for them, and they can review prerecorded lectures if they miss them the first time. And some students who rarely take part in classroom discussions are more likely to participate online, where they get time to think before they type and aren’t put on the spot.

As Mr. Cummins puts it: “Why do we have to meet twice a week? Why can’t there be another type of activity that substitutes for a class?”

Such questions are popular at Fairleigh Dickinson, which has taken the unusual step of requiring all of its students to take at least one course online each year, beginning with this year’s freshman class. With the requirement, most students at the university -- even those who live just a short walk from classroom buildings -- will take about 10 percent of their courses online. Though officials here say they are proud of the institution’s teaching, they also say that students should get used to taking online courses. And they hope the online-course requirement will help bring outside perspectives to their campus.

Many other colleges are encouraging students who live on or near their campuses to take an online course or two. And a growing number of colleges are experimenting with “hybrid” or “blended” models of teaching that replace some in-person meetings with virtual sessions.

Welcome to what some officials are calling “the hybrid campus,” where virtual classrooms are part of every student’s routine.

“Within five years, you’ll see a very significant number of classes that are available in a hybrid fashion,” says John R. Bourne, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering who is editor of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. “I would guess that somewhere in the 80- to 90-percent range of classes could sometime become hybrid.” And he says he expects to see more students choose to take online courses even if they live on campus.

Such moves represent a marked shift in the vision for online education. Previously, colleges focused on developing fully online courses that required no face-to-face meetings, hoping to attract students who could not otherwise get to a campus. But some high-profile efforts to do so, such as NYUonline, have flopped, and some colleges report high dropout rates in classes that are completely virtual.

Faculty Preferences

Hybrid courses and hybrid degree programs promise the best of both worlds, offering some of the convenience of all-online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. Since the earliest days of online courses, some students living on campuses chose them, citing their convenience. Many administrators initially tried to discourage such students from taking all-online courses, but some of those are now warming to the idea.

Hybrid models appear less controversial among faculty members than fully online courses have been, though some professors worry about any move away from an educational system that has worked for centuries.

“The in-person system is the simplest and least expensive way to establish a mentor-scholar relationship,” says Carole Fungaroli Sargent, an English professor at Georgetown University who wrote a book that urges adults to head back to campus to get degrees -- and that also warns against online programs. “It sounds like the distance-learning camp had to resort to this compromise because its ambitions failed miserably.”

The move toward a hybrid education has been quieter than much-hyped efforts to create completely virtual programs. Graham B. Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, calls the convergence of online and resident instruction “the single-greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today,” and he touted it as part of the vision for his university in a speech last year.

Even some of the oldest colleges are showing signs of embracing hybrid models. Earlier this month, Harvard University formed a new committee to reconsider a longstanding policy that requires students to spend at least a full academic year taking classes on campus to get a Harvard degree (see related story). If the rule is changed, it could pave the way for graduate degree programs at the university in which students take some or all of their classes online.

Different institutions give different reasons for trying hybrid courses.

Some hope to alleviate a shortage of classrooms, as the University of Central Florida did. A few years ago, classroom space there was so tight that the institution rented out a nearby multiplex theater during the day.

“We didn’t serve popcorn, but we used the seats and they served as lecture halls,” says Steven Sorg, assistant vice president for distributed learning at the university. The university also rented space from a nearby high school at night. “We were searching for space wherever we could find it,” he adds.

Central Florida now offers about 100 hybrid courses that meet half the time in classrooms and half online. That, along with an increase in all-online courses and new construction on campus, has reduced the university’s need to rent extra space.

“In courses that might have met Tuesday and Thursdays, if they reduce it in half, they can put two sections in the same space” as one used to take, says Mr. Sorg. “We encourage departments to work it that way.”

In the long run, such reductions in classroom use could mean substantial savings, says Ron Bleed, vice chancellor of information technologies at Maricopa Community College District.

“If we reduce our cost for buildings and facilities 50 percent by needing only 50 percent as much space, just think of the savings!” Mr. Bleed wrote in an article last year in Educause Review, a publication of the popular education-technology consortium. “This may also be the only way colleges and universities can keep up with the continuing population growth and the demands for lifelong learning.”

Other colleges say that hybrid courses may be a better way than fully online courses to help busy commuter students. That’s one goal of the University of Wisconsin system’s “hybrid course project,” which is helping 17 faculty members on five campuses in the system develop hybrid courses.

“If you are a commuter campus, you have folks who have got busy lives and no time,” says Carla Garnham, whose title is “instructional innovator” at the Milwaukee campus’s learning-technology center. “It saves some commuting time and it saves the parking,” she adds.

A Once-Taboo Idea

Even though students in hybrid courses do have to drive to the campus every now and then, many students seem to appreciate the occasional classroom sessions, says Ms. Garnham.

“It’s just going to be so much more successful than the totally online,” Ms. Garnham adds.

But most proponents of hybrid courses say their main motivation is to improve the educational experience for students. Their belief -- once taboo -- is that face-to-face instruction is not always best, and that not all students excel in a lecture format.

“Face-to-face is not the gold standard that it’s held up to be,” says Chris Dede, professor of learning technologies at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

“Many people find their voice in distance media in a way that they don’t in face-to-face sessions,” he says. A shy student, for instance, might never participate in a classroom environment, but the student might frequently speak up in online forums where students have more time to think before they comment.

And not all students learn the same way, Mr. Dede argues, so presenting materials in a range of formats can help make sure every student is fully engaged in at least some class activities.

With that idea in mind, an introductory statistics course at Ohio State University is developing a hybrid course with a “buffet” style -- a choice of classroom or virtual activities.

“You can think about how people present food to a group,” says Dennis K. Pearl, a professor of statistics at Ohio State who is developing the hybrid course. “You can make the best roast beef that you can, but a vegetarian is not going to have a good meal.”

Apparently, many students did not find the traditional version of the course appetizing: about 20 percent failed or dropped out in recent years, says Mr. Pearl.

“I think the best model is to provide a really good buffet,” Mr. Pearl says, adding that he hopes more students will do well this year.

And some professors say that some activities -- such as delivering basic facts -- are better handled online, while some discussions and group activities are best done in person.

A Mixture is Best

Mr. Dede, of Harvard, says that his research and experience in teaching hybrid courses suggests that hybrid models can be superior to traditional classes.

“A strong case is beginning to be made on the basis of research evidence that many students learn better online than face-to-face, and therefore a mixture is the best way,” says Mr. Dede. “What proportion that mixture should be would vary from course to course.”

Chuck Dziuban, director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Central Florida, says that his office’s research shows that student success rates in hybrid courses on the Central Florida campus are “equivalent or slightly superior” to face-to-face courses, and that the hybrid courses have lower dropout rates than do fully online courses.

But Mr. Dziuban says he is tired of attempts to compare traditional courses with online or hybrid courses. Instead, he says, a college should decide which type of course best matches its mission.

Many students who have tried hybrid courses say the model fits their attention spans and their lifestyles. “I lose interest in a classroom setting, but meeting 50/50 is nice -- it helps keep me in check and also gives me freedom,” wrote Sarah Hangen, a student at Sinclair Community College, in an online discussion as part of a hybrid course.

“If I took an [all] on-line class I’d probably do poorly and stress myself out by procrastinating,” she added.

Some colleges have turned failing online courses into successful hybrid courses, after deciding that some activities are better done in person. That’s what happened in an online technology class offered by Marlboro College last year. The college quickly organized several in-person workshops midsemester to supplement virtual sessions, says Douglas Eyman, Webmaster for Cape Fear Community College, who was one of the instructors.

“Because of the material, it turned out better to have workshops,” says Mr. Eyman. Marlboro flew him to the Vermont college’s campus so that he could lead one of the in-person sessions.

At Fairleigh Dickinson, administrators say the online requirement is part of an effort to give students a “global education.” The college has hired 15 “global virtual faculty” members living in other countries. The adjunct instructors are paid about $1,000 per semester to participate in online courses led by campus-based professors.

“If you can reach the world, you can bring the world to campus,” says J. Michael Adams, the university’s president.

This year, all freshmen at Fairleigh Dickinson are required to take an online course called “The Global Challenge,” which is a revised version of a core class the university has offered for years. Though most of the course is online, it also requires six or seven in-person meetings throughout the semester.

Student reaction to the online-learning requirement has been largely positive -- perhaps because they realize that many sections of the course would otherwise be offered at 8:30 a.m.

“I would rather sit at home and do my work than have to get up in the morning,” says Mili Patel, a freshman who took the Global Challenge course last semester. “I work well on my own,” she adds.

But some students have had difficulty adjusting to the virtual-classroom environment.

“In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble with online,” says Dave Dragani, a freshman who also took “The Global Challenge” last semester. “I think it would be better if it was in the classroom.”

Catherine Kelley, assistant provost for educational technology, defends the requirement. She says students will probably need to know how to take online courses once they leave the campus, because many continuing-education courses are already offered online.

“For some of the students, it’s medicine,” says Ms. Kelley. “They may not like it, but they need it -- like a basic composition course.”

In fact, one of the main goals of the university’s requirement is to use the campus environment to teach students how to succeed in virtual classrooms.

“It’s like learning a foreign language,” says Ms. Kelley. “The best way to learn it is to immerse yourself in it.” And when on-campus students do struggle with online courses, they can go to a professor’s face-to-face office hours for guidance.

At many other colleges, students living on campus have flocked to fully online courses -- often to the chagrin of administrators who hoped the courses would bring in new students.

Insistent Students

“What surprised us the most was how insistent our campus students were about wanting to take these Internet courses,” says Bill Pelz, coordinator of online courses at Herkimer County Community College. “Our plan was to not even let the on-campus students take these courses,” he adds.

In response to student demand, however, the college has allowed all students to take online courses. But administrators make it more difficult for on-campus students to take online courses, requiring them to get a dean’s signature to do so.

Still, about 60 percent of the students in online courses are also taking traditional courses on the campus.

Colleges and universities may soon encourage students to take one or more online courses from other institutions -- perhaps in subjects that the student’s own college does not offer.

“A student might take two courses in a classroom format and two online courses from another institution, or even through a consortium,” says Carol A. Twigg, executive director of the Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Even some professors who have been skeptical of online-education projects say that hybrid models could work -- as long as faculty members are left in control of the courses. That’s the position taken by James N. Gregory, an associate professor of history at the University of Washington who helped organize a letter-writing campaign in 1998 protesting what the writers said was a “frightening” and potentially “disastrous” drift toward replacing instructors with computerized teaching tools.

“The devil is in the details” of how such courses are done, according to Mr. Gregory. “A course that is taught by an involved instructor and meets some of the time in person and uses various tools and enhancements by computers could be wonderful,” he says. Or it could be “a disaster.”

The key, says Mr. Cummins, of Fairleigh Dickinson, is to be open-minded about how a virtual classroom might fit into students’ overall experience.

“It seems to have been an all or nothing at many schools -- all online or all in person,” says Mr. Cummins, who helped design and teach an online course last semester as part of the new effort. “I think we’re in a transition in trying to redefine the delivery of courses.”

http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A33