Hybrid Update: Creating our Community of Inquiry

Dear friends of the blogosphere:

 There is no excuse for losing touch with my blog and blog friends, other than “life just keeps getting a whole lot busier!”  You're right, no one ever said (or promised) hybrid instruction would be easier-nor did they mention how much fun we would have! The goal of this post is to update you on what I've learned about good practices in Hybrid PT education, and to pose some “food for thought” questions for you to chew on and discuss.

Since I’ve last posted, the Hybrid DPT Program at NSU-Tampa has had a whirlwind of activity. Here’s a quick glimpse:

·       Students: Our charter class, the class of 2015, is nearing the end of their 2^nd (out of 4 years). They’ve done a fabulous job adjusting to hybrid learning and teaching us what really matters (more on that later…). They are in the throes of more complex clinical classes, the stakes get higher and the learning more integrative. Luckily for us, the HYBRID environment supports this integrative learning. The class of 2016, 39 students strong, pushes us to become better at what we do!

·       Faculty: We’ve added 2 fantastic FT faculty to our ranks and 5 dynamo adjunct faculty, all of whom jumped in wholeheartedly to the complicated (and perhaps less tested ) role of hybrid instructors. As a team, we have improved our ability to deliver the curriculum using this FUSION of online and face to face experiences.

·       Spreading the Hybrid Word: The faculty as a whole presented a course series at the APTA Annual Conference in June 2011 entitled “360 degrees of Hybrid Education.” In addition, we’ve presented posters and platform presentations on related topics such as

§  Converting a medical pathology course from face-to-face to hybrid: Processes and outcomes (Cherry, Blackinton)

§  Blogging to create a palpation portfolio: Use of a blog to master psychomotor skills at a distance (Lazinski)

• Using Collaborative Web Tools to Achieve Affective and Psychomotor Objectives in Hybrid Physical Therapy Education (Lazinski, Shaw)

§  Upcoming: What we’ve learned about hybrid education from A-T: Administration to Technology (Blackinton & Lazinski)

 

Here’s what I’ve learned:

·       The “Community of Inquiry” or CoI Framework developed by Garrison and colleagues (2000, 2008) is an ideal model to help us in our “Got Hybrid?” quest. Simply put, the model reminds us that in our blended learning community, we need 3 key elements: Teaching Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Social Presence.  Not clear? In a traditional classroom, the teacher/instructor is obviously present-but what about Teaching Presence in the online portion of a blended program? Further, how does one create group cohesion online? In my first semester of teaching hybrid, I thought assignments and an occasional voice thread would connect me to my students. Humbly, I was wrong. Now we use Mike Simonson’s beloved “Monday Morning Memo’s” (short videos to our students each week touching base, cracking jokes, etc), Tegrity lectures, blogs, wiki’s and synchronous elluminate sessions to be PRESENT for our students.  I even asked students to text me the most ‘surprising’ point of this week’s lecture.  We seek to build “social presence” when we ask students to interact with one another in a variety of ways-setting a climate of collaboration and sometimes (just for fun), one of competition. Last but not least is cognitive presence, which I have found to really stimulate my teacher’s brain. I now ask questions like:

o   How will my assignments (and lectures or videos) get the students to APPLY what they are learning?

o   What can I do to foster metacognition in my students—can they learn from this learning experience? One example of that is what I’ve tried to do in the Teaching and Learning unit in a Health Promotion class. I posted an “interactive handout” (Thanks again Mike Simonson!) that students could use to take notes on while watching my lecture, but I also explained to them WHY I posted a handout with blanks on it. This small action helped student understand that I wanted them to pay attention and not zone out during presentations, and asked them to consider using such a technique themselves when they are working with patients.

 

 

The CoI framework gives us the elements to reflect on what we teach, how we teach it, how to make ourselves present to our students, and how to build a community in students feel safe and empowered to learn. These are the things that MATTER as told to us not only in this framework but by our students. 

 

Here are my questions (FINALLY) for you to chew on. Please do so while enjoying the picture of a beautiful sunset from Kiahwah Island Golf Course and Resort.

1.     What MORE can we do to create cohesion between our ONLINE world and Face to Face world-such that the 2 are intricately connected rather than seeming like 2 different worlds?

2.     What teaching strategies support metacognition in the blended classroom?

3.     As a hybrid instructor for entry level professional students, where is the sweet spot between not enough presence and TOO much teaching presence?

 Motor on hybrid friends! A great reference on the CoI framework is: "Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles and guidelines." D. Randy Garrison and Norman D. Vaughan. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

Mary