Hybrid teaching (and its alternatives)
On-campus teaching scenarios with online participants
(September 2021)
Hybrid teaching and the models proposed here aim to offer students, who have hardly been on campus for three semesters, at least some teaching on campus. The university’s goal for the fall semester 2021 is to let students experience “real” interaction with their instructors and peers. At the same time, depending on the current pandemic situation and what is possible in specific situations, the concept that “presence can also be virtual” will still be relevant. The purpose of hybrid and other similar scenarios is to design the interactive portions of courses in such a way that students who participate online are included: they should be able to ask questions, work in small groups and take part in discussions.
Hybrid teaching and the models proposed here will ensure that everyone is able to pursue their studies during a pandemic. The essential feature here is the division between in-person and “remote” participants who either follow the course digitally or are provided with a recording. In the latter case, there are various ways to compensate for the lack of opportunities to ask questions and actively participate in discussions.
During the pandemic, there have been various reasons for splitting students into these groups (on campus vs. remote):
- Alternating instruction: certain students participate remotely because filling classrooms to capacity is not allowed (pandemic distancing rules).
- Sporadic absences of individuals or small groups: students currently in quarantine/isolation or showing symptoms must be able to stay at home (this should be kept easy and have minimal consequences).
- Extended absence of individuals: students who are at an increased risk or might pose a risk to others, for instance to vulnerable individuals around them, can study remotely for safety reasons.
When designing courses, the potential size of the respective groups throughout the semester should be taken into consideration.
Principles
- First, course contents should be taught using an appropriate format.
- Second, interaction should be made possible wherever this is desired.
Recommendation for choosing the scenario
- When selecting one of the four scenarios (see below), there are two key factors to consider: group size and the planned level of interaction.
- These scenarios (1–4) are explained in the following table.
- We define “hybrid teaching” here as simultaneous, synchronous and highly interactive instruction for two parallel groups: one on campus and one online. Generally speaking, hybrid teaching is a very demanding format for instructors if their goal is to allow for the same level of interaction with both groups. The format entails organizing both groups, facilitating the course (in this case, mainly planning the interaction) and didactic aspects. Below we have put together several recommendations on how to design hybrid instruction.
- For larger groups requiring a high degree of interaction, we recommend an alternative to hybrid teaching, i.e. a “flipped classroom” format (see scenario 3). This “pandemic model” of a flipped classroom consists of course content and instructional material prepared in advance (including videos, for example), which students work through independently, and (shorter) interactions with two groups, one after the other.
- As a rule, truly interactive hybrid teaching is difficult with larger groups – alternative formats (online discussions, e.g. ADAM forums, office hours, etc.) to complement the non-interactive coursework are often more productive than complex hybrid settings.
Below are some possible solutions according to group size and degree of interaction.
On-campus lecture with recording
large group
low
The in-person course in the physical classroom is recorded and promptly put on ADAM for students who cannot participate.
On-campus lecture with live streaming
large group
low
The course takes place in the physical classroom for students on campus but is transmitted live for remote participants via video conferencing (Zoom) or webcasting (Panopto) software.
Interactive hybrid course
small group
high
The course takes place on campus while fully involving remote participants via video conference (Zoom). They join the event live via Zoom (audio and video) and participate directly in discussions and any group activities.
Flipped classroom with two groups
medium to large group
high
The class consists of several specific sequences:
- Course contents are made available in advance for students to work through on their own (video, audio, images, text, learning module, etc.)
- Interactive meeting with the in-person group in the physical classroom
- Interactive meeting with the remote group via videoconference
Lecture series
Especially for hybrid lecture series (on-campus course with live streaming), it is important to observe additional safety precautions in Zoom due to the public nature of the events. A leaflet on this can be found here (in German).
Accessible version of the table
The implementation recommendations for the individual scenarios (see table) can be found in the linked PDFs. To ensure accessibility, which is not guaranteed in some cases for PDFs, the contents of the PDFs are also listed below:
Scenario 1: On-campus lecture with recording
(Appropriate for courses with large groups and a low degree of interaction)
- The in-person course in the physical classroom is recorded and quickly put on ADAM for students who cannot participate.
- The AV media kit is available to improve the audio and video quality of the recording.
- Use Panopto or Zoom to make the recordings.
- Make the recording available through ADAM either directly by using the Panopto Video module or via a web link to SWITCHtube.
- Students on campus ask their questions in the physical classroom. Make sure that the questions are clearly audible on the recording.
- Ideally, you should offer students who were not present and who have watched the recording the opportunity to discuss and ask questions in an extra session via Zoom.
Recommendation:
Questions from the two groups can also be collected between class sessions via a Forum or Etherpad on ADAM, or even by email, and then answered at the beginning of the next class.
Possible difficulties:
Familiarize yourself with the technology in the classroom to ensure the recording has good audio and video quality.
The discussion/question session for students who could not attend the class on campus requires additional time and effort.
Scenario 2: On-campus lecture with live streaming
(Appropriate for courses with large groups and a low degree of interaction)
- The course takes place in the physical classroom for students on campus but is transmitted live for remote participants via video conferencing (Zoom) or webcasting (Panopto) software.
- The AV media kit is provided to improve the audio and video quality of the streaming.
- Students on campus ask their questions in the physical classroom. Make sure that the questions are also clearly audible for the remote participants.
- Remote participants ask their questions live via chat. Ask some of the students who are in the physical classroom to monitor the chat feed and to bring up the questions in the discussion.
Recommendations:
- Have specific time slots for questions at regular intervals and clearly communicate how and when you would like to collect and answer the questions from both the in-person and the remote participants.
- The two live survey tools https://movo.ch and “LiveVoting” on ADAM offer a way to actively involve all participants.
- The course can, of course, also be recorded simultaneously and made available to all students for exam preparation.
- This scenario is also an excellent choice if it is impossible for all students to be present in the physical classroom due to room capacity. You can split the students into groups and notify them ahead of time which group will be attending on campus and which remotely.
- We recommend using multiple laptops, particularly when you bring in guest lecturers. You can then set one machine to be Co-Host for presenting content, for example, and use the other machine as Host for technical support, chatting with participants, etc.
Possible difficulties:
Familiarize yourself with the technology in the classroom to ensure good audio and video quality.
Properly addressing the questions asked by remote participants requires extra attention.
Scenario 3: Interactive hybrid course
(Appropriate for courses with small groups and a high degree of interaction)
- The course takes place on campus while fully involving remote participants via video conference (Zoom). They join the event live via Zoom (audio and video) and participate directly in discussions and any group activities.
- This means that the instructor must teach two groups simultaneously. Managing the two groups and the technology is much easier with dedicated assistance (e.g. teaching with colleagues, asking assistants, delegating tasks to students).
- The AV media kit is provided to improve the audio and video quality of the streaming.
Recommendations:
- Audio quality is more important than having the perfect camera setup. Depending on the acoustics in the room, smaller rooms are often better for capturing audio with an external microphone. In case of large distances (either due to the size of the room or to the social distancing between the participants), any question or input may have to be repeated for remote participants.
- Plan in some extra time before the course’s first session. Note the ideal settings and positions for the following sessions and prepare a checklist for all subsequent course dates.
- Before the first session, you should ideally test the setup with someone playing the role of an online participant: Is the audio working in both directions? Where should the external microphone be placed so that the whole group on campus, not just the lecturer, can be heard by the remote participants?
- Plan the whole process in advance and be clear in your communication, especially concerning the interactive sequences in your course.
Possible difficulties:
High degree of effort at the level of didactics, organization, and the facilitation of exchanges.
Elements to consider:
- Can in-person and remote participants both see and hear each other?
- If this is not always possible, what ways are there to compensate (e.g. repeating the questions when they were asked too far from the microphone) or switch modalities (for verbal feedback via Zoom)?
- How can remote participants be included? What activities can both groups complete together? Should participants on campus bring their laptops, e.g. for collaboration via Etherpad, etc. and/or group activities?
- How can group activities be planned (in person AND in breakout rooms, etc.)? How will the groups be divided up for this?
Hybrid settings, due to the difficulty of organizing interaction, tend to favor the traditional lecture format. Given the importance of interaction, the “flipped classroom” scenario (see below) may be a better option for large groups than the hybrid interactive scenario.
Scenario 4: Flipped classroom with two groups
(Appropriate for courses with large groups and a high degree of interaction)
- The class consists of several specific sequences:
- Course contents are made available in advance for students to work through on their own (video, audio, images, text, learning module, etc.)
- Interactive meeting with the in-person group in the physical classroom
- Interactive meeting with the remote group via videoconference
- The instructor’s input is usually provided several days or weeks in advance, in contrast to the standard practice of presenting it at the beginning of each session.
- Instructors record or provide in advance the content of their lectures, their explanations, as well as other teaching materials by using the corresponding functionalities on Panopto, SWITCHtube or ADAM. Possible formats include recorded lectures, images, videos, audio files, scientific literature, etc. The students then work through the course contents on their own.
- The interactive meetings in the physical or virtual (Zoom) classroom are used for discussions, clarifications, practical exercises, and to expand on the teaching materials already provided.
- Advantages: for the instructor, this scenario avoids the intensive work and stress associated with interactive hybrid settings (see above). The instructor’s input is prepared in advance (and can also be accessed later or even reused for future courses).
- Disadvantages: preparing the teaching materials in advance can result in a huge amount of work. Depending on the setting, there may be a lack of interaction and exchange in the group as a whole, since only half of the participants are present in each discussion.
Recommendations:
- Keep it simple. The course contents you prepare should be in line with the scope and quality of the seminar/lecture input, but absolute perfection is not expected!
- Explain the concept and advantages of the flipped classroom model to students. This teaching format only works if students take seriously the work they must do to prepare for the interactive meetings. This ensures that the in-person sessions are not used mainly to go over the course contents again.
- Interactive meetings should not be too long in order to keep the workload manageable for lecturers as well as students: seminar length minus preparation time for students, divided by two. For example, for a 1.5 hour-long seminar, a 10-minute introduction video and some reading, a half hour of discussion remains each for in-person participants and via Zoom, possibly followed by students’ self-organized (group) activities.
Possible difficulties:
- More work may be required to prepare course contents in advance.
- Dealing with students who participate in interactive meetings without having prepared for them.
- Extra work for organizing the two different interactive meetings: once for the physical and once for the virtual classroom. The total workload should be reduced by making group conferences shorter, among other things.
