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What are the advantages of hybrid learning for students and educators?
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How are traditional education systems implicated in hybrid learning?
What is hybrid learning?
Hybrid learning is often confused with blended learning, that the classroom could be scheduled offline and online on different occasions. So students need to attend the classroom depending on how the lesson goes on at that specific time.
On the other hand, hybrid learning offers complete flexibility for students because students can attend lessons either online or offline. The study takes place in an offline classroom, and students can attend the class either by being present in the classroom or remotely.
How does hybrid learning work in practice?
The difference between hybrid and blended learning could also be by the lessons being synchronously and asynchronously; in hybrid learning, the study is delivered synchronously. In other words, all students can attend the class simultaneously, and location is not a problem for the educator.
Because hybrid learning offers freedom to students, many schools and institutions have switched their education modalities to this new teaching method. In addition, schools and corporate companies have started adopting hybrid learning to train their employees.
What are the advantages of hybrid learning for students and educators?
In the past few years, the notion of education has started to change with up-to-date innovations and reforms. The hybrid learning method is also an inevitable reform in education. Because distance is no longer a factor in a lesson, the new method meets learners' current needs.
Some of the advantages of hybrid learning for students and trainers are:
- It provides practicality for students and educators by removing the obligations.
- Teachers have the flexibility to plan their lessons and assessments.
- Students can watch the lectures again to understand the subject better.
- Peer pressure is no longer an issue for students with social anxiety.
- The physical classroom is still available to those who want to be present in the classroom.
- Students no longer need to miss a lesson because they cannot make it to the classroom.
Hybrid learning is popular among all ages and education levels thanks to its many advantages. However, it is still the most popular among adult learners who, in their hectic lives, may find it difficult to attend a physical classroom. They may also appreciate the flexibility of attending classes remotely.
What are the challenges faced by educators?
Teachers may face some challenges while implementing hybrid learning programs. However, with enough practice and experience, hybrid learning would not pose any hardships.
Some possible challenges of hybrid learning might be:
Sharing learning materials and files
The freedom to be at any location may cause delays and troubles for the teacher and the students. For example, some files may take a long time to upload or download. The teacher may have to wait for course material to be uploaded, or students may face delays when working on a project together.
Possible solutions
Educators may anticipate such trouble and take some precautions such as:
- Standardizing the technical tools and applications
- Using cloud-based technologies to avoid delays
- Set a limit for document size and let all students be aware of it
- Using the same or similar programs to avoid setbacks
Lack of peer interaction
In modern education, collaboration and peer learning are crucial to achieving understanding. However, students may find it challenging to connect with peers and share their knowledge in a hybrid classroom.
Due to a lack of interaction, teachers may find it difficult to pair students or assign them group homework. In addition, it may be challenging for educators to connect the students in the physical classroom with those who are connected remotely.
Possible solutions
Thanks to modern virtual classrooms such as Perculus, using breakout rooms can help educators avoid a lack of peer interaction. In addition, the newly extended breakout room features, such as assigning tasks, adding games, and setting the instructor in the lobby so that all groups can hear, may help students interact more and ease the educator's job.
Moreover, breakout rooms can break the ice and encourage students to collaborate and mingle. So using a virtual classroom may be an excellent solution for educators.
Online temptations and procrastination
When there is a lack of physical compulsion, students may feel like postponing their tasks or may even tend to go for online temptations such as their favorite games or websites. In addition, the online world has always been an amusement area for them where they surf freely and enjoy themselves with games.
Possible solutions
As the instructor, it’s as much work as it is for a student to set up some rules and limits for online use and deadlines. Some tips to avoid students from distractions and make them stick with the deadlines:
- The educator can ask students to install certain timer software on their computers so that they can be aware of how much time they have left for assignment submissions.
- There is correspondingly certain software helping students avoid online distractions. They can just activate the software, and they will not be able to surf on the internet during the lesson.
When used in a smart way, technology has a lot to offer to provide solutions to your problems.
How are traditional education systems implicated in hybrid learning?
Hybrid learning has proved itself to be a beneficial way of education, so even traditional education systems started using it. Everyone has realized the importance of learning without borders in the past few years, so adapting to remote learning has improved.
Despite hybrid learning's advantages, traditional schools and higher education institutions still prefer the conventional classroom method, with the exception of allowing students to learn remotely.
Other methods, such as blended or flipped learning, may not be ideal for the traditional education system. However, hybrid learning is a great fit because of its freedom and flexibility. This is also how it is easily implicated in traditional learning.
Why are higher education learners a better fit for hybrid learning?
Adult learners thrive in a hybrid learning system because of its flexibility in education. While younger learners may need a powerful teacher modal in a classroom, adults prefer to take the initiative and have ownership of their learning.
How can young learners benefit from hybrid learning?
When the right tools are available, hybrid learning can be just as amazing for young learners as it is for adults.
Perculus, a virtual classroom, offers fun activities and splendid time-fillers for young learners. With a thorough understanding of the needs of the age group, learning will be inevitable for young learners.
How can we realize all the benefits of hybrid learning?
Hybrid learning is a big subject where there are solutions and tools for every level and every age group. So there cannot be only one standard hybrid learning method we can talk about.
If we want to realize all the benefits of hybrid learning, we need to look at:
- Level of the learners
- Ages of the learners
- Quality of the materials
- Assessment methods
- Consistency and balancing online and offline lectures
For example, when we want to assess students, we will need to be fair to all students. In addition to being assessed in a classroom, remote students could also work on live assessments simultaneously.
All it takes is to find the right virtual classroom with significant features. The rest is test and error and finding your own way to adapt hybrid teaching.
Hybrid learning for enterprises
Having been the subject of many discussions, hybrid learning proved to be the most desired form of training in business life. In a survey conducted by Accenture in 2021, 83% of respondents deemed hybrid modal to be optimal.
Hybrid training allows them to save time and makes them more motivated for company training sessions. Corporate trainers also prefer hybrid learning which results in faster and better results in learning.
How to get started giving hybrid training?
Preparation and planning are vital to start switching to hybrid learning. The educator must adapt both the content and the teaching methods to accommodate online and offline students. For successful learning to happen, a trainer should:
- Choose cloud-based materials so that all students can have access simultaneously.
- Keep communication a priority so that learners can interact with each other and the instructor.
- Reduce in-person delivery by increasing self-paced online materials so that students can take time to learn by reviewing the materials.
- Conduct live assessments so that all students are tested at the same time.
- Share statistics and analytics with the students so that they can also see where to focus.
As long as an educator sets achievable goals, informs the students, and creates an interactive course, it will not be hard to achieve better learning results than conventional education.
Final words
As a teacher, when you focus on what your students will study and how they will engage with the course, hybrid learning will help you achieve excellent results.
No matter what age or level your students are, you may never want to go back to traditional education with enough preparation and know-how about the tips and tricks of the hybrid learning method.
