This article was originally published in my newsletter, Digital Education, in January 2021.

I thought I would try and put a few thoughts together about hybrid learning, and highlight a few resources that I think look useful. One of the reasons I’ve been thinking about it is that I may have to do some hybrid teaching myself. At the time of writing, however, I haven’t done any, so I suggest you regard this article as thinking aloud rather than the last word on the subject.

Definitions

The first thing that struck me when doing the research for this article is how often the terms “blended learning” and “hybrid learning” seem to be used to mean whatever the writer wants them to mean. The way I think of them are as follows:

Blended Learning

A mixture of face-to-face work and online work for the same people at different times. For example, a course might require us to do some reading on our own, take part in an online discussion about it, and then meet in a classroom for some other activity.

Hybrid Learning

Where some people are in a physical classroom and other people are taking part in the lesson online — at the same time. This is the definition I’m using here, in order to establish a term of reference. However, if you think this definition is incorrect, please let me know why, and suggest a better alternative.

I do acknowledge, though, a comment made about blended learning by Roger Broadie on Twitter:

@terryfreedman The very fact that they are calling it online learning indicates they don't understand. All effective learning using digital is blended learning to greater or lesser degree. Online content without activities, discussion and feedback produces little learning. https://t.co/4kz07nTLG4

— Roger Broadie (@RogBroadie) January 16, 2021

Spot on!

Advertorials

Something I noticed when researching hybrid learning is the number of articles that seem at first to be unaffiliated to any product but then very quickly start to read like extended adverts. Some of these articles are still useful though, for the general principles discussed.

My Thoughts About Hybrid Learning: Things To Consider

Online Teaching And Online Learning

It’s rather disappointing that the Department for Education (Dfe) seems to regard the terms “online teaching” and “online learning” as synonyms, or uses the term “learning” when they seem to be describing teaching. Is this being pedantic? I don’t think so. The teacher and school have a crucial role to play in establishing the kind of conditions in which learning can take place. Whether that’s the case will need to be discovered through assessment, especially assessment for learning, and that involves discussions and interactions with students. But the DfE often seems to mention such things in passing, and talks a lot about “delivering” online education, as if it’s a parcel. Perhaps I am being too unkind, unfair or dismissive, but I am afraid I have never had a strong impression that anyone in the DfE or Ofsted knows what they’re talking about. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong, so if you disagree with me please do let me know.

Adaptation

Adapting a course, or even a lesson, for hybrid learning is not a trivial task. I think it’s more complex than simply running some previously asynchronous activities at the same time. I would strongly suggest that if you are required by your school or college to teach in a hybrid environment you ask what support is available for you. For example, will you be given technical support (see below), help with designing the course (which may simply take the form of the school facilitating the sharing of experience and good practice of its own teachers, or ideally with some expert outside help as well), or some extra non-contact time to use for preparation.

These questions may prove to be impossible to answer satisfactorily, but I don’t think they are unreasonable questions in themselves. I think many people, including myself to some extent, thought that designing a hybrid course would be fairly easy, but having looked into it I don’t think that’s the case at all. If a headteacher has assumed that hybrid learning is the same as blended learning, these questions may help to highlight the differences. It may even be that the Head actually wants blended learning but has used the term “hybrid learning” instead. That’s why it’s worth exploring the issue with them.

Another thing I’ve noticed with many of the articles I’ve read about hybrid learning is that they assume that the teacher is going to provide a lecture. This is not the norm in schools, and nor should it be. See also “What sort of class is it?”, below.

The Classroom Set-Up

Will the students taking part in the lesson online be doing so via a webcam on the teacher’s laptop, say, or via a video camera set up in the corner of the classroom? The physical set-up will have almost certainly have implications for how the teacher interacts with the online participants.

What Technology?

Ideally, teachers should be able to choose the best technology for their pedagogy, the subject and the nature of the class they are teaching. I doubt very much that happens in many places, if any at all. What I’ve observed in the adult education Institute where I teach sometimes are the following:

• The institute as a whole has decreed that Zoom and Google Classroom are to be used for online classes.

• Some tutors use Google Meet instead, because it has automated closed captions, which is good for hearing-impaired students.

• Talks and conferences involving guest speakers have used Zoom and a person relaying what’s being said in sign language.

• Some tutors use Zoom but not Google Classroom.

• Some tutors use Zoom and Google Classroom.

• Some tutors use only the basic features of Zoom or Classroom, while others use several and some use all of them.

• Some tutors use additional apps in conjunction with Zoom and Classroom.

I mention all this because it seems to me that where teachers or tutors do not have complete freedom to select the technology of their own choosing, some will adapt or circumvent the rules anyway. In every case I’ve seen, this has been done with the agreement of the class, but remember that (a) these are adults so perhaps we would expect them to be consulted as a matter of course, and (b) they usually don’t have, or at least express, strong preferences either way.

Accessibility

The technology aspects discussed above are focused on the teacher and the institution. But what about students? Apart from some lip service to supplying some students with laptops, an initiative which from various reports seems to have not been an unequivocal success, the DfE appears to believe that online education will happen by dictat. Tell schools they have make online education happen or else, and magically, after years of the DfE largely ignoring the potential of technology, it will spring into life. Schools will have the right technology, as will students, and both teachers and students will be skilled in its use. A bit rich, when you consider that until April 2019, when the DfE produced its “ed tech strategy”, it hadn’t shown the slightest degree of interest or leadership in encouraging the use of technology in education.

Technical Support

Teaching online has its own plethora of challenges: students not receiving the link, “zoom bombing” slow connections, and so on. It’s hard enough acting as a troubleshooter when you’re only in an online environment. Managing a class in the room and troubleshooting technical problems sounds like asking an awful lot.

What Sort Of Class Is It?

My mentioning of class management raises another issue: what sort of class is it? I’ve taught classes of extremely challenging pupils. Sometimes challenging in the sense of needing almost constant assistance, and sometimes challenging in terms of behaviour. Will teaching assistants be available to provide support with these kinds of classes?

Teacher Expectations

There is plenty of research evidence to the effect that teachers who use technology tend to (a) use it in a way that replicates their non-technology lessons and (b) obtain the results they expected to obtain.

For example, a teacher whose preference is to be mainly a sage on the sage is probably more likely to lecture the class in Zoom, without much use of breakout rooms. At the other extreme, a teacher who sees themselves mainly as a guide on the side is likely to make quite a lot of use of breakout rooms and whole group discussions.

This illustrates the commonly accepted idea that pedagogy comes first, although I think technology can (and arguably should) influence the pedagogy too.

Teacher Habits

I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but I think it’s important. If you’re the kind of teacher who tends to walk up and down and backwards and forwards in the classroom, you’re probably going to provide a pretty awful experience for the people logging in from home. Also, bending over to help a student with their work could be embarrassing if you’re facing away from the camera.

Useful Reading

Finding useful articles was quite difficult, even using different search engines. But I hope the ones below will be helpful.

5 Models For Making The Most Out Of Hybrid Learning

I found that to be the most useful of the lot. The author is a former middle school teacher, and is both realistic and honest about the options available.

How To Simplify Hybrid Learning

In this article Mike Flynn provides insights and practical advice, drawing on his experience of designing hybrid learning models. Noteworthy snippet:

There is an assumption that when we are video conferencing, we need to keep the cameras focused on our faces. However, when students are working on paper, I want to see their work and not their faces.

— MIKE FLYNN

The Hybrid Learning Model - A Framework For Teaching And Learning Practice

This is an academic paper that is quite readable. It introduces the reader to concepts like learning elements. It’s a good theoretical introduction to this area I think.

Russell Stannard: Teaching Hybrid

This article contains one or two suggestions that you might find useful. He also mentions an app called Mentimeter which looks quite useful, though I’ve not tried it myself.

Making Hybrid Teaching Work For Educators & Students

The creator of the “best of” websites collection, Larry Ferlazzo, provides advice in the form of Do’s and Don’t’s over two articles.

Remote Teaching During A Pandemic

William Lau provides a useful article that contains much information, based on research, that not everyone will have been aware of. This is my critical evaluation of his article. I don’t think the term “remote” is at all useful — See Professor Bob Harrison’s article below — but at least Lau has based his article on both research and his own experience. As such, I believe it is more authoritative than the so-called “guidance” from Ofsted (see below).

Rapid Evidence Assessment On Distance Learning

This is a summary of the evidence across a number of studies into what works best in online education. It’s much more incisive, and therefore more worth reading, than the Ofsted guidance referenced below.

Online Learning: There Is Nothing Remote About It

In this article, Professor Bob Harrison takes issue with the term “remote” education, and the DfE’s record in this regard. As he says,

Learning cannot be remote. But it can take place online. Like the best classroom teaching, it is the result of a skilfully designed combination of co-constructed content, creativity, collaboration, and communication in a community supported by caring, capable, confident and compassionate teachers.

— BOB HARRISON

24/7 Learning Vs 24/7 Teaching

This is an article I wrote in 2005 — and it’s still relevant.

What's Working Well In Remote Education

Finally, Ofsted has produced this guidance. It contains one or two useful snippets, but I found it somewhat lacking. It doesn’t include hybrid teaching and learning, and says it’[s a myth that “remote education is fundamentally different to other forms of teaching/learning”. Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by “fundamentally” in that context, but I think it’s different enough to warrant at least examining your approach and resources and assessment methods to check whether your usual kind of lesson would be effective online. I think that this guidance is useful in making the idea of online teaching sound doable, but there are too few details or links to details that would make it truly useful.