On 13 March 2023, the Hyb-IT-up project had a presentation in the University Pedagogy course at the University of Oulu, Finland. The theme of the session was “Teaching Methods; Digital Pedagogy, Technology-supported Learning”. The participants were international workers of the university who have teaching responsibilities or experiences, ranging from Ph.D. students, postdocs, university teachers and lecturers, and professors.
The project coordinator, Azusa Nakata from the Learning and Educational Technology Research Lab (LET Lab), introduced the project overview and facilitated the discussion. The presentation began with the impact of the global pandemic and the consequent educational paradigm shift. The COVID-19 pandemic has resuscitated talks about the benefits of technological advancement in facilitating pedagogical discourse and the necessity of pedagogical development to enhance students’ digital literacy, including coping with hybrid situations. The presentation increased awareness of hybrid learning and highlighted the need, readiness, and challenges of setting up effective hybrid teaching and learning strategies.
The Council of the European Union’s Recommendations (2021) referred to hybrid learning as the bridge between various learning and teaching environments, capable through digital and non-digital tools. Hybrid learning is a method that is advantageous to many diverse learners, particularly those in adult learning, abroad, indisposed or working professionals, and offers flexible, comfortable, and interactive learning experiences (Raes et al., 2020). However, there are challenges in orchestrating its successful organization and implementation. Some of them are issues with teacher workload, student engagement, curricula alignment, digital literacy, or accommodation of current or emerging digital devices (Li & Han, 2021; Raes et al., 2020).
The highlight of the presentation was to identify current challenges and draw attention to the potential and operational ways to facilitate richer hybrid learning experiences. It is important to understand the situational requirements of the learning environments and promote interactive and inclusive online spaces. To buttress these points, she introduced various hybrid teaching scenarios and discussed technological and pedagogical challenges that emerge from them by referring to the pictorial illustration below:
The presentation ended with a remark that promoting the co-presence of the onsite and online students is key and we can achieve it by utilizing such interactive online collaborative platforms and Apps. After the presentation, participants had a group discussion and shared their thoughts on the Padlet platform (see a picture below). They shared their feeling about hybrid teaching and learning, what they perceived as hindrances to the actualization of hybrid teaching, and improvement, and pondered on whether there is any potential for effective hybrid teaching. The participants’ opinions are valuable for the Hyb-IT-up project for creating solutions for restructuring the post-pandemic future.
Thank you for inviting us to the great course and having a lively discussion with us!
References
Bell, J., Sawaya, S., & Cain, W. (2014). Synchromodal classes: Designing for shared learning experiences between face-to-face and online students. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 5(1), 68–82. https ://doi.org/10.14434 /ijdl.v5i1.12657
The Council of the European Union’s Recommendations (2021). Council Recommendation of 29 November 2021 on blended learning approaches for high-quality and inclusive primary and secondary education 2021/C 504/03, p. 21, CELEX: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32021H1214(01)
Li, Q., Li, Z., & Han, J. (2021). A hybrid learning pedagogy for surmounting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in the performing arts education. Education and Information Technologies, 26(6), 7635-7655.
Raes, A., Detienne, L., Windey, I., & Depaepe, F. (2020). A systematic literature review on synchronous hybrid learning: gaps identified. Learning Environments Research, 23, 269-290.
The writer of this blog: Faith Ilesanmi (Master’s student in the Learning, Education and Technology programme)
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