Hybrid Teaching Toolkit

When making the shift to hybrid instruction, examine how you'll teach—or better, interact—with students asynchronously. Think of yourself as the class facilitator to remind students they take the onus of their own learning. 

Think about how you can incorporate educational technologies, both in the classroom and used asynchronously, for content access and activities. Be prepared to help students troubleshoot technical problems if they come up. Finally, leverage instruction, events, and connections made in your in-person sessions within the online class session, and provide opportunities varied choices for interaction.

Consider these five things as you plan your hybrid course:

1. Create short, segmented videos to introduce students to new content when delivered asynchronously
2. Incorporate weekly objectives to guide student learning between in-person, remote, and/or asynchronous sessions
3. Set clear expectations—clearly explain what you expect students to accomplish by the end of each session
4. Develop a variety of learning experiences—examples include individual and group assignments, weblinks, case studies, quizzes, papers, and discussions
5. Make clear learning connections between in-person, remote, and/or asynchronous sessions

When students navigate through their asynchronous class sessions online, they are engaged in a different way, tasked with making sense of and prioritizing course content and activities in the Canvas course on their own. It’s a student-centered experience by its nature, but they’re not alone.

• Your role as facilitator comes through a variety of interactions that guide them along the learning experience together. This is often referred to as online instructor presence.
• Remember: Your facilitation extends to your lecture and resource videos as well as through your writing voice when communicating assignment instructions, discussion posts, announcements, and emails.

Read more about developing effective online facilitation skills on USF TEAch »

Here are some suggestions on how to engage all your students:

• Consider our tips on flipped teaching
• Assign multimedia group projects
• Use the Jigsaw Method to divide course readings/materials
• Add discussion boards to your online presence

Need more suggestions? Request a consultation with the Instructional Design team.

What are your current assessment strategies? How can you scaffold the learning process for students to be successful in your class, regardless of when they're participating? Determine if your assignments align to your course learning objectives. Here are some suggestions for assessing student learning:

• Incorporate live polling using Poll Everywhere or Zoom
• Use rubrics to create criteria for synchronous and asynchronous activities
• Assign one-minute papers to check for understanding between sessions

• Register for an ETS Hybrid training »
• Smith, B., & Brame, C. (2014). Blended and Online Learning. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Access the teaching guide »