Hybrid Classes: All You Need To Know

This year students would be going back to their institutions as the ERP has finally allocated offline classes. Although it might sound extremely easy and fun, organizing and rescheduling classes to be taken on both platforms, online and offline, for hybrid teaching is complex. Teachers and students would have to put in equal amounts of effort to cope with this procedure. If you thought that using an LMS was difficult, try switching between the learning management system and offline classes. Institutions are trying to simplify this process as much as possible.

What is a hybrid class?

By now, almost every individual is familiarized with the concept of hybrid teaching and classrooms. This is a method where both learning management systems and offline platforms are utilized to achieve learning objectives. During the pandemic, illness was the most viable solution but it was not enough to give the best quality education. Although they could not practice offline classes then, now as the cases declined and students get vaccinated, offline classes are possible with necessary precautionary measures. 

Hybrid learning has gained a lot of momentum during the pandemic although it had existed even before that. It provides a lot of benefits to students. Different countries and education systems perceive hybrid classes differently, some of which are mentioned below;

Type 1

Institutions allow only a few groups of students to attend offline classes every day, while the remaining attend the same class over a digital platform. Teachers coordinate online and offline classes simultaneously while teaching in the traditional classroom, and live streaming the lesson to students who have remained at home. 

Type 2

Every student comes to the school on alternative days of the week while social distancing and adhering to safety guidelines. For the remaining days, they join online classes. It helps them help equal experiences and benefits of both online and offline teaching methodologies. This is the most commonly followed type of hybrid teaching.

Type 3

Every student remains at home, only teachers and other important school staff arrive add the institution grounds or school campus to hold the classes in assigned grades or classrooms but make it possible through live streams only. this is followed in kindergartens and other education systems where students have not been vaccinated yet.

Challenges of hybrid classes

Knowing the challenges that hybrid learning methods space to students can help teachers eliminate them with possible solutions or alternative methods. 

• Improper learning experiences because of a division of class forms among students cause different rates of progressive growth in all the students studying in the same grade. Teachers can overcome this by making a Lesson plan which considers every child’s learning indulgence, the ones coming to school and the ones staying at home to attend online classes.
• Lack of interaction and innovation because of a lesser number of recreational activities. Hybrid classes are difficult to attend because there is nothing fun to do and only educational values, which is a necessity, are transferred to students. Teachers must solve this by including online games or other forms of group activities through digital platforms.
• Technological issues while taking classes, for teachers and students. Teachers should have a Plan B in case their present technological option fails. To ensure that every child can connect properly, they should use systems that have minimum data requirements and are compatible with most other devices.

Steps to improve hybrid teaching

• Teachers should either have a Lesson plan or step by step guide on how they’re going to proceed with an online or hybrid class;
• Organize your methodology beforehand, at least a day before the class is held.
• Formulate the greeting strategies to give attention to both online and offline students attending classes.
• Set objectives to be achieved through the learning platform.
• Distribute presentations or other resource material for learning beforehand over an LMS.
• Observe the attention span of students during both mediums of classes and allow them to give feedback on how they would prefer hybrid solutions to improve their learning experience.
• Practice taking online classes and take meaningful advice from experienced teachers of the institute.
• With proper guidance, who else and coordination among school authorities and teachers, hybrid class learning experiences can be improved for all the students, irrespective of the learning mode.