Hybrid Classes

Brandon Carter

Although some researchers have found that students in a hybrid class, one that is taught in part by lecture and also online learning, can do as well as students in a more traditional class, this might not be the case all the time. According to James N. Gregory, an associate professor of history at the University of Washington, "The devil is in the details" of how such courses are done. According to Mr. Gregory, "A course that is taught by an involved instructor and meets some of the time in person and uses various tools and enhancements by computers could be wonderful," he says. Or it could be "a disaster."

In order for the classes to be effective students need a certain set of skills. For example, when there are few time constraints other than deadlines, students who take online course are fully responsible for sticking to their own schedule. If the student is the kind of person who procrastinates too much and has trouble managing time, the online part could end up being much harder than necessary. In addition while students don’t necessarily need to know everything about computers, understanding of how to interact with the online section of the class is a must. Plus the fact that some students have higher computer literacy than other students may put the lesser equipped students at a disadvantage. In addition there is also the problem of lack of direction. In the hybrid setup, students have a lectures one class and online learning the next, but in between the lectures all the students have is the online resources the professor gave them. While this may some times be sufficient there are other times where a student could be left in the dark so to speak. If the student can’t ask the professor questions on which direction to head in, the student could end up in completely the opposite direction the professor intended.