Waaay back in 1999, a colleague and I offered hybrid History classes. We met with our students for an hour a week, and the rest was online. We each pulled in about 20 students the first time, and the students we had were very happy. But the next semester the dean said she couldn’t see what population we were serving, and hybrids disappeared.
Now they are back. I have had a couple of colleagues do some, and most warned me not to. They spoke of student confusion, high attrition rates, student resistance to doing the online work. Fiddle faddle, I said — if anyone can do these, I can. So I put two on the schedule for this semester. They almost got cancelled for low enrollment, but didn’t. They each have about (c’mon, guess) 20 students.
In the meantime, I have an inbox full of emails begging entrance to the online sections. I know that many will fail the online sections due to lack of self-direction and motivation (especially those asking to add once the semester has begun, which it did today). I think their motivation would increase if they had to be in class once a week. I also think being in class for a hybrid provides a balance, and a place to ask those technical questions, see what’s going on using the screen, talk together in person for some immediacy. I’ve told my students that my hybrids are not on-site classes with an online component. They are online classes with on-site discussion, kind of like a seminar. They’re gonna be great.
In 1999, the online thing was new, and the on-site thing was most familiar. Students were worried about the online part. Now it’s almost reversed. Online students want only online — they don’t want to come to campus. And that means there is a defined “online student” now.
I found an old student survey that the Technology and Pedagogy Committee did back in 1999 today, while I was looking for something else entirely. We surveyed whether our college students were interested in taking fully online classes, and they were tentative: 67% said yes. Now we squabble about whether online classes are “replacing” on-site classes, whether we will lose our position on campus if we “give up” sections to online.
I’d be interested to see some stats on how many students take both on-site and online classes at the same college, because I have a feeling it is less than five years ago. Perhaps on-site students aren’t as interested in online, and vice versa. Maybe they know their own needs, or maybe it’s all determined by their schedules, desire for flexibility, or misconceptions that online is easier (I know students who maintain this perspective despite their dismal performance in online classes because they don’t do the work).
The new committee I’m chairing now, MiraCosta Online Educators, had some meetings while I was on sabbatical, and today I listened to the recordings. An hour-long conversation took place over how to designate hybrid classes in the schedule. Some of our classes are 100% online, but others demand on-site testing, or an on-site orientation. We also envision synchronous online classes. How are these to be indicated in the schedule? How will students know what’s going on? (I happen to think these two questions aren’t as closely related as they seem – students rarely read the schedule.) Will students be there for these hybrids? Is it what they want?
Or do we have now online students, and on-site students?
