A Veteran instructor offers suggestions to make the most of the hybrid course.

About two years ago, after 24 years of teaching in the traditional face-to-face format, I sat in on a presentation on online courses.  The idea was quite intriguing.  I wondered how effective, though, would an online course be and whether students would really get out of it what a traditional course could offer.  Would students be disciplined enough?  Could one teach an equation online?  Could a student understand the concepts involved in forecasting or an inventory model while sitting by his or her computer?

Implicit in the delivery of distance learning at William Paterson University is the provision of access to the various information resources required for an enriched learning experience.  These educational services are developed within the mission of the university and delivered remotely via technology, traditionally via an instructor on site in combination with technology, and through the development of new pedagogies looking at how people learn best.  About 75 percent of the student body does not reside on campus.

My first exposure to online teaching was in the summer of 2000; the second was fall 2000.  I taught an online course for Production and Operations Management which included techniques and methods to plan and control manufacturing and other operating systems.  Application of quantitative methods and various analytical techniques were stressed for operating system design, productivity, inventory, quality, and capacity management.  Experience taught me that online courses demonstrate a tool useful in helping students learn.  However, a hybrid type of course consisting of half class time and half online time proved more beneficial than a pure online course.  Finding that many students want to be in class up to 50 percent of the time, I formulated a list of seven components for a successful online course:

1.       Choice. Some students thrive in group settings; others prefer working independently.  Students should be given choice as to how they learn, as long as they learn.  WPU has a great library.  Although I didn’t want to tie down students to have to go to it unless they wished, I did want them to use the Web.
2.       Up-to-date information.  Material presented in textbooks is often dated.  Students are able to read more timely information in newspaper articles.  To both provide this material to students and to have some means to know whether it was read, I required them to respond to questions on each reading assignment.
3.       Virtual company visits.  Students were interested in “seeing” what a company does.  Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to organize a class trip to a company.  Virtual visits provided some interesting walk-through tours of companies.  To be sure that students were taking these “tours,” I included questions at the end of each tour that students could e-mail to me.
4.       Textbook link.  A textbook should provide material to supplement the computer.  Here again, I created an opportunity to obtain feedback from the students on the chapter through quiz questions.  As long as a student answers most of the questions correctly, he or she can earn full credit.
5.       Communication within groups.  In a traditional course, interaction between students is somewhat difficult, especially with shy students who sit in the back.  I thought I could overcome this barrier by introducing case studies, which would require input from all.  I assigned three case studies to groups of four students each.  Each student read and analyzed the case.  Each group then communicated in their specific discussion group and shared thoughts.  On its due day, one student from each of the groups submitted the answers from the group.  We would then actually meet in class to discuss the answers “live.”
6.       Interaction between groups.  Another component required each student to interact with someone else in the class by answering the current events questions and commenting and/or adding to other students’ answers as well.
7.       Actual class interaction.  Absolutely necessary is a pre-class or first class session, in which the students learn about the delivery technology and are able to ask me “in-person” any question about the course.  Typically I offer two identical sessions at different times during the first week in order to accommodate students who have scheduling problems.

The face-to-face class is typically reserved for answering technical questions, reviewing discussion questions from the text, discussing exercises from the chapters, and for demonstrating software concepts.  Students find this component of the course beneficial, even though it is an online course.  When asked, “How valuable do you feel contact time is in this course?” students felt it was important to express feelings and problems at the same time and to get a better idea of how they were doing in the class.

Leonard Presby is a professor in the Department of Marketing and Management Science, William Paterson University. presbyl@wpunj.edu

From Syllabus Magazine (June 2001, p. 17)