In response to the pandemic, schools are redefining education in the short-term to try and accommodate the disruption caused by Covid. In the process, many are rethinking what education and the learning experience should look like. Hybrid learning in one form or another is going to be the new normal. Here are some things to consider about hybrid learning and how you can adapt and create seamless learning experiences for your students.
What is Hybrid Learning
Hybrid learning is combination of learning at school and online. The blend may vary and the methods of learning but for many students they will experience learning in a hybrid classroom environment. So what is the fundamental difference of these two types of learning environments?
Synchronous vs Asynchronous
One of the fundamental differences is in learning in a hybrid learning environment comes down to the nature of real-time (synchronous) vs user-selected time (asynchronous) learning. Synchronous learning is where a live lesson is being taught in-person or through a video conferencing tool such as Zoom or other platforms and an LMS (Learning Management System) which is asynchronous and allows teaching through resources, assignments, and pre-recorded video lessons). With asynchronous learning, the student can work at their own pace but must utilize resources to learn. What effect will these two types of learning have on students in the coming years?
As with all learning, there is a spectrum of learning styles that are better or worse for certain topics and learners. One of the advantages of a hybrid learning classroom is that it will likely provide a more inclusive experience for many students. Going with only one size for all is rarely the best solution. Students are diverse and the learning format should be diverse as well.
Synchronous learning is advanced with technology. When doing a live video conference you can actually overcome many of the barriers of learning present in a physical classroom. The ability to mute all noise from other students so each student is hearing the teacher clearly gives a personalized learning experience that we have been creating in classrooms for years with proper soundfield audio systems as well as wireless microphones. These can also be used by teachers in hybrid classrooms when they do a video call. Good audio quality in an video call is important and our wireless microphones allow a teacher to go beyond sitting infront of a laptop to actually move around, use teaching aides, and whiteboards for a more dynamic experience.
Asynchronous learning is great for allowing individualized learning experiences for each student. By allowing them to go through the material at their own pace and go back through until they are comfortable with the information they can increase comprehension while still decreasing classroom distractions. This is another reason it is vital for students learning online to have a place to study that is distraction-free at home.
Redesigning Learning
What both of these styles of learning give teachers are tools to create a robust and highly personalized learning experience. It requires teachers to contemplate the advantages of the new models and not just adapt to make the best of it but to actually understand it and redesign the learning experience to be better than pre-Covid learning.
It is easy to think smaller when integrating online learning. We can think of online learning as a lessor substitute for a physical classroom, but in reality, it is just another layer of teaching capability that can be fully utilized to improve learning for every student. At TeachLogic we want every teacher to be fully enabled to deliver great lessons both online and in-person. Our tools can bring out the best in teachers and easily integrate with online instruction. Learn more about how you can use your TeachLogic classroom audio solution for online teaching and keep creating amazing learning experiences for your students.
