The Best of Both Worlds: Hybrid Learning

Hybrid courses are a combination of online and traditional instruction that have the potential to improve student learning while reducing faculty teaching time and university resource usage.The University of Arkansas -Fort Smith Mechanical Engineering department recently implemented two approaches to hybrid courses.One course reduced in class time by 67% through implementing online video instruction.Another course reduced in class time by 33% through an interactive online homework system.In both cases learning actually improved even though class time was reduced.In three assessments for each course the average increase in performance was 17% when compared to an earlier traditional lecture course.The increase in performance is likely due to the interactivity and convenience that online learning often features.Student feedback was largely positive in both courses, with most students indicating a preference for the hybrid course when compared to a traditional course.Both online methods were low cost and were fairly easy to implement.