Mark and Randy, I am writing on hybrid education as well and did extensive literature review as well. You guys did an excellent job of explaining just what hybrid education is and the pros and cons of it.

I enjoyed reading it.

Joe Popma

Dear Writers,

Thank you for addressing this topic.  Please see past feedback related to title page formatting.  In relation to content, as I read your piece, the topic of isolation jumped out at me.  I believe many online learning systems strive to reduce feelings of isolation.  Working for GCU, we are able to identify many strategies designed to reduce isolation from the Cyber Cafe' to CLC  interactions. 

You do an excellent job of reviewing the pros and cons of online learning.  I like that you included the research related to podcasts of lectures.  I believe learners need the multiple modes of instruction.  Most importantly, I believe that when the online structures hold learners to high standards everyone succeeds!

Rae Thompson

Mark and Randy,

Interesting that data on hybrid courses and online are comparable. Hybrid courses are tough for many students to commit to with families or travel involved, whereas online courses can be completed even with remote living, single families and varying shift work schedules people are looking to change. Without adapting to the student consistently it is improbable they will complete the five year degree, or pay for it!

Striving to reduce isolation really is a struggle in the one dimensional environment, although not without accomplishment. When universities have real staff that are in touch with faculty, faculty feel connected, attend meetings and have forums where they can feel openly supported with ideas- these internal open beliefs and customs are transferred directly to their classrooms. When faculty believe they are connected they will themselves not feel isolated. Personally I believe it is a transferable learned behavior. Good connective learning!

Podcasts would be wonderful for the students to be able to visually see the lessons as well would be great! I agree with Rae that GCU works hard to avoid this form of isolationism. We need to keep working on incorporating more learning styles for our students as well.

Mark and Randy,

I enjoyed reading your article on hybrid instruction and student achievement.  You highlighted several studies that indicated that it does not hurt student achievement to utilize a variety of hybrid and online models.  I do think that is way the education is moving.  I did notice that more than half of your references were older references and I am curious to know how hybrid instruction is evolving in more recent years.  In particular, whether there is an impact on student achievement when instructors are trained to teach in a hybrid and/or online model.  I think having highly qualified instructors regardless of the instructional model is key to student success.   

I also agree with you that more research needs to be done on which classes/topics are more suited for hybrid and/or online instruction.  McNaught (2011) stated "Appropriate hybrid learning designs will evolve as it becomes normal practice to ask the question 'In what ways can technology add to students' learning experience in this unit of work?'" (p. 7). I think that is a key question that needs to be considered when designing courses for a hybrid model. 

Your article did a nice job of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of research conducted on this topic, and highlighted important areas for further research.  I look forward to seeing more research and articles being conducted on this topic.  Thank you for sharing a very well organized and informative article on the topic.

Reference:

McNaught, C. (2011). The best of both worlds: Effective hybrid learning designs in higher education in Hong Kong.  In Kwan, R., Fong, L., Lam, J. (Eds), Hybrid learning 4^th international conference, ICHL 2011, Hong Kong China, August 2011 proceedings (pp. 1-9). Doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-22763-9