Toys Children Play With & Higher Ed

Here is a new toy that may or may not be the next big thing. This toy and others similar to it will change the nature of Higher Education in ten or fifteen years.
Children who play with such toys will expect their school work to be presented in the same manner.   We have something similar to this in Higher Education. It is called Hybrid or Blended courses. These courses are presented both in person (the traditional mode) and online.
Another way this could go is that more and more classes will implement the Flip Classroom where lectures are online and the students show up for in person tutoring on the points they do not understand.

Accelerated Learning

I have been studying and thinking about how to improve our online program and to meet the expectations of the ACCJC during their next visit to our school. During my research I found a presentation and posted it on this blog.  As I watched the video I noticed that someone from the College of Canyons was a presenter. I decided to go to their website and found myself more intrigued by the concept of Accelerated Learning.

The following is a screenshot from their website:

College of the Canyons offers a variety of courses in accelerated, or short-term, learning formats. Our GO! classes are 5-week, online courses. PACE classes are typically 8-week hybrid classes that meet both Saturdays (on campus) and online. PAL courses are offered in pairs: two 8-week Math or two 8-week English classes offered back-to-back in one semester with the same instructor and same classmates. Please click on the links above to learn more about each program

Quickly, I realized that their PACE program is a variation on a little experiment  that economics department is conducting now. The economics department offers two eight weeks classes back to back in one semester. The idea was to help students to complete both Econ 101 and Econ 102 in one semester. During the first eight weeks of the semester Econ 101 is presented and during the second eight week of the semester Econ 102 is presented. Unlike regular 16 weeks classes which meet three hours a week, these classes meet for 6 hours a week. These classes are 100% on the ground or face to face.  (NOTE: This idea was inspired by my discussions with Dr. Wetsman)
The College of Canyon has taken this concept of Accelerated Learning and has added an online component. At our school we call these classes Hybrid classes. They are basically leveraging the online technology to shorten the classes. Students in this program will take 8 weeks courses, same as our students can in Economics at our school, without having to sit in 6 hours of lecture per week. The other three hours per week is completed online. The students complete homework and complete classwork which can assess SLOs, freeing up the remaining time for lectures and/or discussions.  This allows students to complete more units in the same amount of time.
Also instead of only one Department doing this they have scheduled a series of classes which lead to a degree. This is an important point! Why? Currently, students who have signed up for the first 8 weeks Econ 101 class may or may not sign up for Econ 102 during the second eight weeks. There are many reasons for students not signing up for Econ 102. It could be that they do not meet the Prerequisite (Math 70) for Econ 102 or it could be they have realized that Economics does not suit them and wish to study another subject. However, if only one department (econ) is offering these classes, they will have a void in their scheduled during the second eight weeks.
In my opinion, this program will benefit our students.

Why The Hybrids Are Not Doing Well...Auditory Learners?

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a student. I asked this student "Why don't you sign up for Hybrid classes?" I explained that it is half the time in class and she can save time and money on gas. She replied "in an online or hybrid class I have to read the book more. In a regular class the Professor covers the reading."  She continued "If I take good notes, I can get the main ideas of the reading." Finally as she observed my facial expression, she closed with "I am an auditory learner."  

Adam Got His Beer

I paid up on my little bet with Adam last night. So I am all paid up and I learned to accept his wisdom on all matters! 

Mendoza and Reading About Toys and Thinking Hybrid

I am in Mendoza now. I rode a bus for 14 hours but it was OK because the seats would turn into beds. I paid $30 extra for these seats. The hotel´s Internet is not very reliable so I am at an Internet cafe. On the road I was reading Newsweek.
There seems to be some doll that comes with a code for the little kiddies to log onto a personalized website. I left the magazine on the bus so I can not remember the name of the toy. Looking at the Newsweek site, I found the following article on toddlers and the Internet. Most of these toys use the same principle as our Hybrid classes. Will students of the future be hybrid crazy?

Hybrid Article

I owe Adam a drink. I hope he drinks beer and nothing fancy because I am cheap! The El Paisano paper printed the article on hybrid courses and they misquoted Melissa.

"The curriculum is set up so that students spend half the time on computer and the other half online"

Melissa Rifino - Juarez
Sociology Professor

The above quote may have been misspoken by Melissa but I don't think so. The article starts with "Rio Hondo now offers Hybrid courses that combine parts of a regular course held fully in class and a completely online course by splitting the course up 50 percent in class and 50 percent online without adding extra work to students work load."
They continue with the following:
"With a hybrid course, students only attend a one hour and twenty minute lecture once a week rather than attend class twice a week and work online for the second half of the course allowing for students to spend half as much time in class."

Talking to Irma

Yesterday I was talking, or should I say I was bragging, to my office-mate Irma and I came up with a brilliant idea. Most of our students are not prepared for online classes. Some of them lack the motivation, some of them do not posses the adequate hardware or software and some lack the technical or academic skills to complete an online class.
I was bragging about how my Hybrid classes are an exact copy of my online classes except I see them once a week. At these meetings I cover the difficult questions in the assignments and push them to complete their weekly assignments. Although both my online and hybrid classes have the same assignments the retention rates in my hybrid classes are higher than my online classes.
Here is my great idea we should create a set of classes called Assisted Online Classes (A.O.C.). This would be similar to the writing lab where students can meet with the instructor or tutors to succeed in the class. My idea requires approval from various interest groups, so I came up with a way to get similar results under the hybrid umbrella.
We should create Super Hybrid classes. These classes would meet for 30-45 minutes a week and would be similar to an online class taught by that online faculty. The student comes in and discusses their difficulties with the ideas or assignments. The students will sign up for these classes because our online classes fill up so fast. It will cut down on the number of incoherent emails the faculty have to read because the students will come and discuss their problems in person.