Hybrid Classes

Hudson offers a blended model for students: Face-to-Face classes twice per week for 110 minutes and 70 minutes and one 70 minute online class for each content area subject. The goal is for the online classes to be independently managed, but they are part of student programs for now.

Example:
Your history course with Mr. Hendricks- 3x per week
History 70 minute Class
110 minute Class
70 minute online (ilearn) class - independently managed

These three classes combine to create your World History grade.





How we are different:

By blended, we mean that students are taking the same course both face to face and online. Hybrid seems to suggest a mix of classes that are entirely online or entirely face to face.



Hybrid models are becoming more popular- what about blended models?







Hybrid Classes Prepare Students for the Work Force
By Tanya Roscorla
ON NOVEMBER 5, 2010 COLLEGE AND CAREER
At a number of community colleges and districts around the country, students take online classes. But they don't just take typical academic courses like English or math. They also take career and technical courses.
Out of 301 community colleges surveyed for a report by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, 47.5 percent offer credit-granting online occupational programs.
As for the number of K-12 students who take online career and technical education courses, research hasn't pinned that down. But anecdotal evidence suggests that the course numbers are growing, according to a paper released by the Association for Career and Technical Education this week.
“The important part of this issue is that people recognize that you can in fact teach some of the employability and technical skills online," said Steve DeWitt, senior director of public policy at the association.
With a mix of online and hands-on learning, school districts and community colleges teach students the skills they need to enter their chosen careers.

Meet the needs of students
In Pennsylvania, the Seneca Valley School District provides flexibility for kids through its online program.
"I don’t think everybody’s going to be a brick-and-mortar kid," said Superintendent Don Tylinsky, "and I think what that entails then is offering the ability for kids to think outside the box and for us to do things outside the box, and the thing that creates that is technology."
The online courses fill a niche that brick and mortar doesn't offer to certain students, said Mark Korcinsky, principal of Seneca Valley Senior High School. Some students just don't like the school setting or prefer the flexibility of spending time online and in an internship.
“Any time we can offer kids what they want, it’s a benefit for the kids,” he said.
At Iowa Western Community College, some students in the emergency medical technician program don't have time to go to campus two nights a week. They have families and jobs, and a number of them take the course so they can volunteer as emergency medical technicians, said Cherri Lynch, the emergency medical services coordinator at the college.
“We thought if we could put part of the program online so they could access it on their time schedule, that it might be advantageous to some of the students, and we would be able to cater to a class of students that we hadn’t been able to accommodate before," Lynch said.

Mix online, hands-on learning
Online, students access lectures, take exams and quizzes, and participate in threaded discussions. And on campus, they spend five Saturdays practicing the hands-on skills they need.
When they take their national certification tests, the students who pick the blended approach score as high or higher than the traditional classroom students, Lynch said.
Seneca Valley School District also takes a blended learning approach.
“What we’ve tried to do is marry the two so that not only are they taking the course online, but they’re also interning at the same time,” Tylinski said.
One young man is taking a diesel repair course while working on the township's automobiles and trucks. He told Tylinski that the combination of the course and the internship helps him understand what he's learning.

Make the leap
To improve online career and technical education, the Association for Career and Technical Education paper recommends four strategies for policy-makers and education leaders to take:
• Provide the resources, including infrastructure, to increase the number of schools that offer career and technical education opportunities online.
• Set up programs of study so that students can finish a sequence of courses within a specific track.
• Offer high-quality professional development for online instructors.
• Keep improving the integration of online and face-to-face learning, which has brought in high student achievement results and allows schools to continue expanding the number of subjects taught online.
Education leaders also have some advice to share.
Lynch recommends that program directors dedicate someone to answer student questions in the threaded discussions online, which she said takes quite a bit of time.
And Tylinksi advises leaders to dive into online career and technical education courses.
“You just can’t be afraid to take a risk," he said. "You sort of have to jump in with two feet because I think you have to meet the needs of kids today, and the old traditional way of teaching is just not going to make it. Kids growing up today are used to technology, they’re used to working in front of a computer — good or bad — and we need to meet those learning styles.”


http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Hybrid-Classes-Prepare-Students-for-Careers.html