Summer 2020Designing & Building for Hybrid Learning

Welcome

Welcome to Designing & Building for Student-Centered Hybrid Learning at St. Mark's. Please watch this short video that will help orient you to our course.

Why Hybrid?

Hybrid learning is a pedagogical approach that combines face-to-face classroom instruction with online learning. With the uncertainties of next year, this model will allow us to adapt as circumstances change. Building our courses online in Canvas will provide the "maximum flexibility" to facilitate shifting between on-campus and online instruction as needed (Hanawald).

Here's a quick video to explain the "what" of hybrid learning for St. Mark's.

What Makes a Good Online Course?

Here’s the good news: research aligns high-quality online courses with the same qualities that define educational excellence at St. Mark’s.

A good course:

Clearly articulates learning goals & criteria for success
Is culturally informed and takes equity & learner variability into account
Is interactive and social, cultivating and sustaining a vibrant learning community
Is engaging & challenging, inviting students to participate & make personal connections and supportive of their cognitive & affective growth
Involves lots of practice, engaging students in the “doing” & “thinking” of learning
Has a caring teacher who is visible, active, empathetic, approachable, and responsive
Promotes student agency, providing choice and opportunities for relevant & meaningful learning

Download this PDF, created by Sandy Levandowski, if you'd like an infographic version of this list.

Adapted from Veletsianos, 2020

What Makes an Excellent Online Teacher?

Rhonda Bondie, director of professional learning and lecturer on education at Harvard's School of Education recently explained that "excellent online teaching isn't based on the ability to navigate a Zoom room or create a Google doc." Instead, she believes this:

"Excellent instruction is based on decision-making — how teachers decide to respond to and engage with students, select curriculum materials, organize learning, and use communication strategies. That principle, Bondie says, holds true in physical and virtual spaces alike."

-- Boudreau, "What makes an excellent online teacher?" Harvard's Useable Knowledge Blog (July 2020)

This course will guide you through the decision-making process so you can adapt your excellent teaching to the hybrid context we will live into over the next school year.

A Student-Centered Approach

Similar to when campus is open, our approach to hybrid learning will be student-centered. The norms and definition of high-quality online learning from the experts at Global Online Academy (GOA) will be helpful as we develop our student-centered virtual classrooms:

High-quality online learning is an intentional, learner-centered blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning that offers students the chance to connect with teacher and peers, to do their best work as defined by learning goals, and to be active participants in the learning process (Design Bootcamp Course, 2020).

Click the image on the right to explore GOA's Norms for Online Learning

Online Learning Norms (GOA, 2020)

OnlineLearningNorms_Infographic-1_824a8b77ba01cefe361758303bd1dc76.jpg

Click here to get started