Instructional Technology News
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Hybridization on the Rise
As reported in the 2015-02-11 issue of Campus Technology, the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition reports that the number of faculty using flipped instruction to some degree will increase from 30% to 55% in the next year. The report states that "Flipped learning is seen as especially suited for higher education because the rearranging of class time gives students in large introductory lecture courses more opportunity to engage and interact with their peers.”
A flipped classroom generally refers to the practice of providing all pure lecture content outside of the classroom time, while paper writing and other productive exercises are moved into the classroom where direct collaboration with the instructor and other students can occur more easily. A more general term for this move is a hybrid course. Hybrid courses are courses in which a significant portion of important learning elements are presented outside of the classroom. In many ways, this is analogous to what many science classes do when an emphasis is placed on lab work. Students learn the concepts outside of class and then put them to use in the classroom with their peers and instructors. Hybrid courses are not “online courses” and they avoid some of the pitfalls associated with online classes, most especially the alienation caused by a lack of in-person contact with other students especially.
Although we don’t have data similar to the statistics above for Elmhurst College instructors and classes, it is clear that the available technology has reached a level that supports effective hybridization at many levels. Additionally, research shows that student learning can be enhanced by the just-in-time interactions with the instructor. In order to support these benefits, CST and the office of Instructional Technology will be presenting a series of workshops centered on the principles, techniques and technology used in a variety of hybridization scenarios.
If you have particular concerns that you would like addressed in these workshops, please contact Dave Basener, and watch this space for further information.
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