Hybrid Learning: The Perils and Promise of Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education

A call for the extension of hybrid learning urges that it become not just a quick fix or a boon for the bottom line, but an educational mode that reenvisions quality teaching and learning for the 21st century. Hybrid Learning: The Perils and Promise of Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education is an in-depth exploration of a new learning mode that could radically change higher education, incorporating emerging trends in technology and multimedia use—including online gaming, social networking, and other Web 2.0 applications—to create engaging and dynamic learning environments. Laying out fundamental challenges facing higher education today, this book shows how hybrid instruction can be designed and implemented to deliver excellent educational value in flexible modes and at moderate costs well-suited to the circumstances of many students and institutions. The book lays out the characteristic profiles of students who are most likely to benefit from and perform well in a hybrid learning environment, as well as the features and practices of hybrid courses most likely to produce positive learning outcomes. It also specifies the obligations of faculty in designing and delivering best-practice hybrid courses and the support and policy obligations of institutions. Challenging prima-facie assumptions about hybrid learning, the author promotes it as nothing less than an opportunity to reenvision education for the 21st century. Written in an easy-to-read, bullet-point style Gives practical, real-world examples of the successful diversity of hybrid learning programs, drawn from the author's personal hybrid teaching experience and interviews with faculty and students Includes specific examples of leading-edge applications, like the virtual world of Second Life and 3D web browsing with Exit Reality, which could inform successful hybrid course design Provides interesting and relevant anecdotes throughout

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Method Terminology 1 The Resistant Early Adopter 2 Challenges Facing Higher Education Managing Enrollment Scheduling and Classroom Space Aligning Learning Objectives Improving Student Retention, Success, and Completion Reaching Tech-Savvy Students Understanding Students, Technology, and Writing Assessing the Digital Divide Choosing a Direction 3 Going Hybrid: The Bigger Picture Room for Innovation Retaining Students Online: What Do We Know? Responding to Competing Pressures Our Media-Rich Environment: "Share Your Story" Convergence: Technology and Media Participation NYTimes Goes Interactive Pirates of the Caribbean Online: Convergence and Participation 4 Hybrids: A Cultural Moment and Its History Hybrid Learning as Distance Education Diploma Mills: The New Shape of an Old Problem Where Might the History of Distance Learning Go? 5 Hybrids in Action Defining Terms (Again) and Upfront Advertising Hybrids Across an Institution Ada Wainwright, Psychology Naheed Hasan, Psychology Mitchell Fisher, Economics Lois Stanciak, Education A Hybrid Program Master of Education in Educational Studies, University of Alberta A Student Perspective Emily Conradt, Graduate Student, Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Variations on a Theme Lessons to Learn? 6 Technology: Trending to Community and Collaboration Course Management Systems: Building Virtual Presence Blogs: A Public Sphere in the Classroom Wikis: The Art of Managing Collaboration Social Bookmarking: Sharing Content and Community Second Life: Real Learning in a Virtual World Exit Reality: The Social Web And Now, the Next Big Thing … 7 A Resistant Early Adopter Argues for Hybridity The End? Appendix: At a Glance: What It Takes to Make Hybrid Learning Work Notes Index