Keith Pratt, Ph.D.

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Effective Teaching in a Hybrid Environment
by Keith Pratt, Ph.D. Rena Palloff, Ph.D.
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Technology-enhanced Learning is Good For
environments that

• Do not need to happen at a particular place or
  time
• Require the most up-to-date information
• Adapt easily to various learning styles
• Have constantly changing information that both
  instructors and
• learners need to know about
• Encourage collaboration and conversation
• Provide refresher training or shortcuts for
  experienced learners
• Encourage learners to contribute their own
  material to the learning environment
• Contain a variety of computer hardware and
  software platforms

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Technology Enhanced Learning is not good for
learning EnvironmentsThat

• Provide just-in-time training to learners who
  may not have access to a computer
  when they need it
• Involve novice computer users who may need to
  learn to use the technology first
• Have materials that were originally designed for
  another medium and may not lend themselves to
  being reworked

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Learner/Technology Assessment (Adapted from Beer,
1999)
Suitability of Technology for Content

• Can the use of Technology contribute to
  meeting learning goals?
• Is Technology-enhanced format an appropriate
  container for the content?
• Is the way the content presented now amenable
  to a technology-enhanced format?
• Can the learner gain information and practice
  new skills by using technology?
• Can you be reasonably sure that the learners
  have the new skill, based on what they
  learned by using technology?

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Acceptability of technology in the Learning
Environment

• How do my students learn now?
• Who is asking for technology-enhanced learning
  and why?
• How do you envision instructors using a
  technology-enhanced environment?
• Do students know how to use technology?
• Do students want to learn this way?
• What technology is needed for the learning
  environment and does it exist in this institution?

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Key Points in Planning for Technology-Based
Learning

• Determine and address the skills that
  instructional staff will need to be successful in
  delivering training in a new way

• Determine and address the skills and readiness
  of the intended audience. Technical training and
  orientation as
• well as psychological readiness for online
  learning may need to be addressed first

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Key Points in Planning for Technology-Based
Learning

• Make sure that your target audience, not just
  your instructors are ready for technology-based
  learning
• Technology-based learning is a strategic
  decision and requires input from and acceptance
  by more than one department
• A barrier to successful implementation of
  technology-based learning is the belief that the
  skills and systems used to create
• and deliver training using technology are the
  same as those needed for print-based or classroom
  training. Work to
• develop new approaches in the creation of
  materials and new skills in delivery

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Achieving Maximum Participation

• To facilitate participation, the instructor
  should
• Clearly communicate expectations
• Teach students about online learning
• Be clear about course requirements
• Be a good role model
• Be willing to facilitate the discussion
• Create a warm, inviting course environment

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Promoting Collaboration
Collaboration

• Assists with deeper levels of knowledge
  generation
• Promotes initiative, creativity, and critical
  thinking
• Allows students to create a shared goal for
  learning
• Forms the foundation of a learning community

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Some Teaching Techniques that Promote Interaction
can Include

• Creating web pages that contain no more than
  one
• screen of text and graphics (KISS)
• Collaborative small group assignments
• (Encourage interaction)
• Research assignments asking participants to
  seek out
• and present additional resources available
  on the
• Internet and in books and journals
• Simulations

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Some Teaching Techniques that Promote Interaction
can Include

• Asking participants to become knowledgeable on
  a topic within the scope of the seminar and
  then presenting
• that topic to their peers
• Asynchronous discussion of the topics within the
  scope of what is being studied
• Papers posted to the course site
• Limited use of audio and video clips

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Promoting Reflection
Reflection transforms a participant from a
student into a reflective practitioner

• Reflective questions include
• How were you as a learner before you came into
  this course?
• How have you changed? Have you changed?
• How do you anticipate this will affect your
  learning in the future?

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Tips for a Successful Online Class

• Establish guidelines for the class and for
  participation that provide enough structure for
  the learners but allow for flexibility and
  negotiation.
• Mandate participation (we usually mandate at
  least two posts a week) and incorporate it into
  student evaluation and grading.
• Promote collaborative learning through small
  group assignments, case studies, simulations, and
  group discussion of readings and assignments.

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Tips

• Have students post their assignments and
  encourage feedback to one another on their work.
  Grades should be shared privately.
• Set up a well-organized course site that
  includes a place for students to socialize.
• Include an area where students can reflect on
  what it is like to learn online. We call this
  Electronic Reflections.

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Tips

• Encourage students to bring real-life examples
  into the online classroom. The more relevant the
  material is to their lives, the more likely they
  are to integrate it.
• Dont lecture!!! An online lecture just
  becomes another article that students are
  required to read.
• Stay present!! Let your students know you are
  there by commenting on their posts and asking
  additional questions for them to consider.

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Tips

• Become comfortable enough with the technology
  to be able to answer student questions about its
  use and assist them when they run into
  difficulty.
• Act as a Learning Facilitator rather than an
  instructor.
• Most of all, have fun and open yourself to
  learning as much from your students as they will
  learn from one another and from you!

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Questions to Consider in the Creation of Online
Courses

• Who are my students?
• What do I want to accomplish through this course?
  What is the course content?
• Is this a course that will successfully transfer
  to the online environment?
• What guidelines, rules, roles, and norms need to
  be established for course completion?

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Questions to Consider in the Creation of Online
Courses

• How do I want to organize the course site? How
  much flexibility will I have in doing so?
• How do I plan to deliver course material? What
  will be expected of students in the learning
  process? Will I offer a combination of online and
  face-to-face options?
• How will I assess student performance in this
  course?
• How will I address attendance requirements?

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Questions to Consider in the Creation of Online
Courses

• How comfortable do I feel as an instructor with
  the inclusion of collaborative learning
  assignments, personal interaction, the concept of
  promoting knowledge in learners, and giving
  control of the learning process to the learners?
• How do I define learning and what do I want to
  see as the learning outcomes for this class??

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Proactive Teaching Tips

• Be clear about the instructor role as a
  facilitator.
• Making this explicit at the beginning of an
  online
• class can prevent confusion and create agreement
• between the instructor and participants with
  regard
• to expectations.

• Be clear about group tasks and expectations.
• The clearer that the instructor is about what is
  to be
• accomplished in the course, the less likely that
• participants will become confused and flounder.

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Proactive Teaching Tips

• Expect participants to move through phases as
  they
• develop their working group. Asking questions
  about group
• development, such as How comfortable are you
  feeling
• with one another as a group? as well as about
  how
• comfortable participants feel with the process
  can help

• Facilitate the process. Although we strongly
  support the empowerment of participants to take
  on their own learning process, instructor
  guidance and intervention is necessary to keep
  things moving and on track

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Proactive Teaching Tips

• As Howard Rheingold (1993) states, always
  assume good intent. If a participant flames
  another participant
• or the instructor, assume that it is inadvertent,
  came from a well-intended place, and respond
  accordingly

• Wait 24 hours before responding to what is
  considered a personal attack. The intensity of
  the message always seems to wane with time

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Proactive Teaching Tips
Always address flaming. A skilled online
facilitator addressed this well when she said,
One voice can be much louder online than
offlineas a facilitator one must decide if they
will protect the right of anyone to say
anything, or to draw a line or embrace a certain
set of norms which, at some point, pulls that one
voice back out of the spotlight to allow others
back in. For me, this balance between control and
emergence is the most difficult, artful, and
when it happens, glorious moment for an online
group facilitator when they can hold a space for
both (White, 2000).
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Proactive Teaching Tips

• Expect conflict. Instead of viewing this as
  unhealthy,
• welcome it as a sign that the group is
  developing.
• facilitate movement through conflict so that
  participants
• can develop norms for working with one another
  and
• successfully complete their tasks

• Dont mistake confusion for conflict. Sometimes
  
• participants do become confused with course
  expectations,
• guidelines, and assignments and a simple
  explanation
• on the part of the instructor is all that is
  needed to move
• the process forward.

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Proactive Teaching Tips

• Ask for support and help when necessary and
  especially
• when dealing with difficult participants. We have
  no
• difficulty doing that when teaching face-to-face.
  The
• same should be true online. Having individual
  meetings,
• by phone or in person, are appropriate when
  dealing with
• a difficult participant

• As an instructor, use sidebar conversations
  move through
• the instructor. Encourage participants to use
  sidebars only for
• personal exchanges unrelated to the course.
  Concerns and
• comments about the course should be made on the
  course site
• and, whenever possible, resolving conflict with
  difficult students
• should occur there as well

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Final Thought
We need to develop courses and programs with an
eye toward continuous quality improvement,
support, and a learner focus to keep our
learners engaged and involved as they move
toward their goals, objectives, and dreams.