Hybrid

Evaluation of Instructional Needs

Contents Evaluation of Instructional Needs (Current Page) What Goes Where? Planning Sample Structures Testing and Feedback	Click on a topic.

Self-evaluation of instructional needs

In order to best prepare yourself to think about designing your hybrid course, it helps to take stock of some key factors that play a major role in the design of the course. Many instructors may have already thought of these factors, but it is good to revisit them in order to get a clear idea of the needs and goals for the design.

These factors include motivation, time commitment, pedagogical consideration and technological competency.

Motivation: Ask yourself why you are interested in developing a hybrid course. Many responses from faculty often include:

• to expand student learning opportunities, also factors in convenience and accessibility for students
• the desire to use technology to improve instruction
• to create more engaging learning opportunities
• administrational push to provide more efficient service to students

Time commitment: How much time do I reasonably have to devote to designing the course?
Designing a course as a hybrid can be a daunting task for faculty who also have to maintain their regular schedule. It can be considered an investment, because the nature of the hybrid model offers an instructor increased flexibility.

Pedagogical consideration: What pedagogical benefits does this design offer for student learning?
To take full advantage of the hybrid method, careful consideration should be taken when designing the relationship between course goals, activities, and evaluation for engaged teaching and learning. When designing your course, keep in mind these instructional purposes

• Motivation: For the student - Why learn this? Where and when is this used? What are the payoffs for learning?
• Orientation: How to help the student to adjust to the environment or content being taught -  Objectives, Overviews, Summaries, Review prior knowledge, Schedule
• Information: The content the student needs to consume - Facts & evidence, Skill steps, Concept definitions & examples, Principle definitions, evidence & cases, Demonstration: How to recall, perform, identify, predict results by inferring cause, controlling and explaining events
• Application: How will the student use this content - Practice, Prompting, Feedback, Remediation
• Evaluation: How to assess what the student has learned, was the content relevant, was the instructional method appropriate - Testing

Technological competency: What technological skills do I need to design my hybrid course?
The answer to this will obviously depend on the complexity of the media chosen, and it is always advisable to start simple and build up to more complex media. Some basic skills needed include:

• familiarity with online communication tools such as e-mail, bulletin boards & chat software
• familiarity with a course management system or other web design tools to deliver your content
• knowledge about setting up an internet connection and basic troubleshooting, this also includes identifying resources for help when there is a problem