I found this topic very interesting, since I have been teaching both on campus and online for a while. The most challenging part of it has been when you have students both online and in the classroom at the same time. How can we go about that? Is it possible to support both groups (online and campus) at the same time? Can we plan for learning activities as we used to do?

During our PBL-meetings we realized that the definition and how we interpret blended and hybrid might differ from eachothers view, bu also from what literature says. I found an article in a ”industry magazine” that refers to a text from Uppsala University (Hybrid meetings, 2021) in which they highlights 10 different types of hybrid meetings. This is not a complete list but show the potential of how to use the concept of hybrid. One thing that I was asking myself and my peers in the PBL-group was, what is the differens then between blended and hybrid? Therefore we tried to visualize what we where talking about also to understand what type of activities that can take place in different teaching environments. To have one-way communication like we might have during a lecture could work as an asynchronous as well as synchronous activity if recorded. It also works independent on location, so both campus and distance.

But if the learning activity includes group discussions discussions, formative and direct feedback that is more challenging to achieve online and especially if you mix both campus and online. In a case of asynchronous activities that interaction is, not to say impossible, but at least limited. Therefore, I would say that asynchronous and self-paced education are in conflict with synchronous designed activities and immediate feedback. But using a model like the one below, might help us to reflect on what we can do to improve and find the link between activities that works very well to do ”whenever and wherever” the students want, with exercises that we haven’t find a clear and replaceable activity for.

The more I think about it the more I relate to the previous topic and the Five stage model by Salmon (2013), the amount of interaction (collaboration vs Collaborative learning) needed, as well as the student motivation and goal with studying reflects what is needed from the student/teacher interaction and the activities. A course on basic level with the objective to provide the student with ”some” understanding and knowledge, it is quite easy to design activities to no matter where in model above you are, it is also relatively easy to examine if they remember what they have read. But designing courses and activities to promote higher-order thinking skills (Krathwohl, 2002) and interactions require us to do more. Reducing the time standing infront of the student presenting and instead having time for interacting and giving feedback is a key. Therefore I believe it is easier to succeed with blended learning than hybrid learning, if we just try to adapt traditional campus education to a more digital environment. Maybe we should differentiate how we design education based on basic level and advanced levels? Having MOOCs and online might be more suitable for bachelor level, but more campus or at least more synchronous activities might be preferable in Master levels?

I leave it with an open question…

References:
Hybrid Meetings – Department of Peace and Conflict Research – Uppsala University, Sweden. (2021). Retrieved 8 December 2021, from https://www.pcr.uu.se/about-us/environmental-work/hybrid-meetings/

Krathwohl, D.R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: an overview. Theory into practice, 41(4).

Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model Retrieved 8 December 2021, from https://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html