Before I get to the other reflections from COHERE, I thought I should get this one out first. When I was waiting to board in Edmonton, I was chatting with one of the people in line and found myself explaining what blended or hybrid learning is (or is to me at least) and why it isn’t really eLearning. I explained that eLearning was generally thought of as the delivery of a course entirely at a distance and that hybrid/blended learning is a model that includes some amount of face to face time between students and instructor. This seemed to be enough for the person in line. Then after getting into Toronto and arriving at York, I overheard someone toward the back of the room a similar question… what is the difference between hybrid learning and eLearning… especially if they both use Blackboard? Very odd.
But that got me thinking… I wonder how many profs/instructors will be confused in the same way? Could the idea of blended or hybrid learning be a way to “ease” instructors and administration into thinking about course delivery in a different way? Afterall, hybrid/blend suggests that there is a mix of at least two modes – and as long as they can keep one of the modes that they are comfortable with… maybe they will take a shine to the other? Those of us “on the ground” in this field will likely be grinning at this – because for many instructors, they are already doing this – they are already making use of online tools to extend the walls of their classroom. But doesn’t this sound like a word play on the part of those of us in ID?
Well it is and it isn’t. It is because we are “branding” what the instructors are doing as something great and progressive. This helps them feel better about what they are doing, and hopefully will encourage then to experiement with more tools to explore different ways to engage their students. But it isn’t because there are still many instructors who are not moving any of their content online. Instead, they rely on readings and class time to deal with the content and the issues that arise. They don’t see (or want to see) how doing something as simple as moving the readings online and adding a discussion board can help deal with the issues outside of class time, allowing the face to face time to be used for more engagement.
So it might be an idea (for all of us who are fighting this good fight) to talk about blended or hybrid learning tools when referring to Blackboard, Elluminate and the like – as opposed to calling them eLearning tools – when dealing with instructors who might be wary of “yet another revolution in teaching that is supposed to change everything” (a quote from a Bio prof who has been on campus for quite some time).
Just some thoughts to get the ball rolling on my conference posts.
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