Hybrid Education 2.0

Here’s an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed on Hybrid Education 2.0. Carnegie Mellon University has been developing their Open Learning Initiative which is similar to the MIT OpenCourseWare Project but focuses on being more responsive to individual student needs. They have received four million in private funding and could possible secure more grants from the federal government. Their concentration is on introductory level courses and “how the open-learning software could be used in conjunction with classroom education to speed up the teaching and learning process.” Carnegie Mellon’s approach is not to use Web 2.0 tools to promote collaborative activities but to use computer programs to reinforce vocabulary and key concepts with activities that adapt to the learner. Instructors can then monitor the learning activities and customize their instruction to target the identified needs of the students.

I was a bit disappointed with the responses to this article. They’re very defensive and there seems to be a lot of soapboxes out there. Hello—we are talking about a hybrid here. Isn’t this pretty much what good instructors are doing right now except they are quizzing students in the classroom setting and grading students during their prep time? I know that several of the faculty members at the community college where I formerly worked integrated online quizzes and activities into their courses. Why not save the valuable prep and instruction time to develop and deliver instruction customized for the learners and save the tedious jobs of grading and analyzing the results to a computer program? The next step would be customizing these online activities to individual student learning needs. This is not a bash on professors or community colleges; it’s a way to incorporate technological advances into the learning cycle.