Hybrid/Blended teaching

Blended, Hybrid, and Flipped Courses: What’s the Difference?

Blended, Hybrid, and Flipped Courses: What’s the Difference?

by Artur Avagyan -
Number of replies: 1

Blended, Hybrid, and Flipped Courses: What’s the Difference?

student working at computer

If you’ve read about or attended workshops on approaches to teaching and learning with technology, chances are you’ve come across a few different terms to describe classes that have an online component. What are blended, hybrid, and flipped courses? Are they all describing the same approach to teaching, or are they different from one another? Are they just teaching-with-technology buzzwords--just fads--or are they worthwhile approaches to structuring your courses?

While these terms are often used interchangeably, in fact, they each have fundamental differences. However, all three of these approaches do involve teaching and learning online, and they are all legitimate approaches that have a track record of student success. Read on below to learn more about these approaches and their benefits for student learning.

Blended Courses

A blended course involves face-to-face class sessions that are accompanied by online materials and activities--essentially a “blend” of both live and online learning. A fundamental component of a blended course is that these online materials are not intended to “replace” face-to-face class time; rather, they are meant to supplement and build upon the content discussed in the classroom.

With the widespread use of learning management systems such as Canvas, the blended course approach has become very popular since class materials are easily accessible to students. (You may already be teaching a blended course and not even know it!) Instructors will often use their online courses to post articles, videos, podcasts, quizzes, and interactive online activities for students to engage with outside of face-to-face class time. Since these materials are readily available via multiple devices, students can independently review course content at their own pace, on their own time, and as many times as necessary. This is a key reason why students not only often perform better in blended courses, but they also often have higher motivation and lower anxiety.

Hybrid Courses

“Blended courses” and “hybrid courses” are the terms most likely to be used interchangeably, but hybrid courses differ in that their online components are intended to replace a portion of face-to-face class time. Online interactions can either be synchronous, meaning that students are interacting online in real time, such as through class sessions conducted via Zoom, or asynchronous, meaning that students interact online at different times, such as through online discussions or VoiceThread.

In addition to having many of the benefits of a blended course, the hybrid approach is ideal for students who are living in different locations or are part-time due to a busy schedule or a full time job. Students do not have to travel to the face-to-face classroom as often and can complete coursework when and where it is most convenient for them. As opposed to a fully online course, however, maintaining the face-to-face component of the course can also help support students’ sense of class community, one of the biggest struggles an instructor faces in a fully online course.

Flipped Courses

A flipped course also typically includes both face-to-face and online components, but the way in which students interact with course content is different than in a traditional course. In a traditional course, students learn fundamental concepts in the classroom, either through lecture or class activities, and engage with materials that build upon that knowledge outside of the classroom. In a flipped classroom, this approach is inverted: Students learn fundamental knowledge prior to class, such as through readings, podcasts, or videos, and expand upon that knowledge through activities conducted in-class with the support of the instructor. Flipped courses are thus usually also blended courses, since materials are often provided online, and they can also be hybrid courses, if some of the class interactions take place online. However, blended and hybrid courses are not always flipped.

A host of research supports the flipped course approach. It has been found to allow students to learn fundamental knowledge based on their preferences and strengths, provide more class time for active learning, increase opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration and teacher-student mentorship, and encourage the instructor to consistently monitor students’ progress. A flipped course thus allows both students and the instructor to take full advantage of both online resources and class time.

[To learn about how one Temple engineering professor flipped his classroom, check out this EDvice Exchange post from September. -Ed.]

The Takeaways

Now that you know the difference between blended, hybrid, and flipped learning, you can accurately describe the format of your course, or perhaps explore a format that would better suit your course! If you are a Temple instructor and are interested in improving, designing, or converting a course to one of these formats, our team at the CAT is here to help! You can book an appointment with one of our teaching and learning specialists to talk about planning and reevaluating a course, as well as with our instructional technology specialists to strategize ways to maximize your use of online technologies to support your course. Visit catbooking.temple.edu or call us at 215-204-8761.

Resources

Blended Learning, Hybrid Learning, The Flipped Classroom… What’s the Difference? (2017, April 7). [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.panopto.com/blog/blended-learning-hybrid-learning-flipped-classroom-whats-difference/

Poon, J. (2013). Blended learning: An institutional approach for enhancing students' learning experiences. Journal of online learning and teaching, 9(2), 271-288. Retrieved from http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30057995/poon-blendedlearning-2013.pdf

Roehl, A., Reddy, S. L., & Shannon, G. J. (2013). The flipped classroom: An opportunity to engage millennial students through active learning strategies. Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, 105(2), 44-49. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/daa3/b94cdc7b52b3381a7c7e21022a7a8c005f84.pdf

Ariel Siegelman is a Senior Instructional Technology Specialist at Temple’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

Image by CollegeDegrees360 released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license and cropped for display here.


Author: 
Ariel Siegelman, Senior Instructional Technology Specialist


In reply to Artur Avagyan

Re: Blended, Hybrid, and Flipped Courses: What’s the Difference?

by Artur Zaprosyan -
The difference between blended and hybrid learning
Back in the day learning was something that was done more or less the same at each school. Students sat down, listened to their teacher, took notes and did tests and exercises. Those who were good at this were lucky and probably got good grades. But if you had a hard time following classes like this, well, that was just too bad.

Different students, different learning
The generation of students we have now (Generation WiFi) changes this way of learning. They have been brought up with technology. Scientists discovered that this lifelong exposure leads to their brains developing differently. That is why it is often seen that students, no matter what their level is, struggle to just sit through a lecture and take notes. We shouldn’t force those students to learn the same way we did 10 years ago, but we need to provide them with a form of education that challenges them to bring out the best in them. Luckily, educators are starting to understand that.

The solution: blended learning
This form of education is called blended learning and can be described as a combination between offline and online learning (need inspiration? Download the blended learning cookbook). Students nowadays need an interactive environment to learn in. This environment, for example a learning platform, is the online aspect. But besides that students still need a sense of purpose and control over what they are learning, which will be provided by the teacher during offline contact hours.

Another term that is being used more often these days is hybrid learning. At first sight hybrid learning and blended learning seem the same but that is not the case. Blended learning focuses on the combination between offline and online learning, whereas hybrid learning is about finding the right mix for you out of all the possibilities in learning, no matter if they are offline or online.

Take a look at the blended learning guide if you want more information about blended learning.

Blended and hybrid learning in aNewSpring
aNewSpring believes that blended and hybrid learning both will be very effective because of the synergy that is created between different ways of studying. Blended learning utilises the best online tools to support a teacher-led classroom, but young learners are also encouraged to explore and follow their own paths with computer based modules. A trainer can bring those lessons to life and give them meaning. Hybrid learning focuses less on the technology and more on the most effective way to deliver a course to learners, which is different for every company.

In our platform, we’ve integrated hybrid learning functionalities with blended learning functionalities. We want to offer training providers the option to combining offline and online learning, either for blended learning of for hybrid learning purposes. Since hybrid learning is gaining popularity we want to provide our customers to choose for themselves about what kind of learning we can support them with.

Author: Ger Driesen