*Since the artists formerly known as Hybrid Theory changed their name to Linkin Park, I figured I could use the name as my title. But seeing what Lars and the RIAA did to Napster, I might want to reconsider... |
David Weaver, physics faculty at Chandler-Gilbert Community College |
I have embarked upon another journey of exploration into the relatively uncharted waters of flex time courses. Like the explorers of old, the promise of potential rewards and the threat of potential dangers are abundant. At the core of my adventuresome spirit is a burning desire to make learning physics more approachable and meaningful for my students.
Some of the assumptions I am making on this journey are:
- Learning can only be constructed, never transferred.
- Meaningful contexts are needed for significant learning construction.
- Hands-on is needed for minds-on.
- Learning is a social enterprise that requires dialogue, be it between students, student-faculty, or student-textbook.
- Students can learn more from their interactions with other students than from their interactions with the faculty or the text. Student-to-student dialogues are typified by a collegial atmosphere while student interactions with texts or faculty are usually governed by an expert-to-novice atmosphere.
- The Carnegie Unit (50 minute in a seat x 16 weeks = 1 credit) is an anachronism. I refer to these as Butt Time Units (BTUs). I have no data, but my instinct is that there is little relationship between BTUs and meaningful learning.
I have called the format that I am using hybrid; that is a flexible format that combines in-class time with out-of-class time. In my case, the out-of-class time includes some online activity but a significant portion of it is working on team projects.
My students should expect to spend the same amount of total time on this hybrid course as they would on a non-hybrid version. The old saw is that students should spend two hours doing work outside of class (reading, completing assignments, working on projects) for every hour that they spend in class. Using these standards, my students "should" be spending 12-15 hours per week outside of class on their physics course. However, my research suggests that students often spend less than one hour outside of class for each hour in class. All of my current students are logging their weekly time spent on work, so I should be able to tell you how this flex format compares to the non-flex versions I taught last year.
What I'm Doing
This semester, I am offering two sections of General Physics I (PHY 111) and one section of General Physics II (PHY 112) in a hybrid fashion. The courses normally meet twice per week for roughly three hours (total 6 hours BTU). My hybrid courses come in two flavors:
- Double Up -- Two sections are scheduled on top of each other, say Monday and Wednesday for 3 hours each. In the hybrid, I meet one section for three hours on Mondays and the other for three hours on Wednesdays. We double the number of students we can fit into a space in the same amount of time.
- Double Down -- After the first week, I split the class in half so that I see a dozen on Mondays and the other twelve on Wednesdays. This mode keeps the room usage equivalent to a regularly scheduled course. However, as I'll explore in greater depth later, it opens up the possibility of offering my classes in something other than a huge, specialized physics lab.
Why I'm Doing It
David Weaver's students worked in teams to build robots that compete in a "soccer war" -- this type of project activity lends itself to a hybrid format |
I've never entertained teaching an online class. While I believe that students learn more from each other than me, I'm not chopped liver! There are skills that I need to help with directly and I can't see doing that any way other than face to face.
I had not considered a middle ground until the January 2002 Ocotillo Technology Visioning Forum at Scottsdale Community College. The guest speaker, architect Philip Parsons, led us through an exploration of how technology and socialization factors affect learning spaces. His ideas opened my eyes to using classroom space and classroom time differently.
The dual ideas of getting more students into the same space and allowing for greater flexibility resonated with me. As that meeting was breaking up, I asked our dean of instruction if there was time for me to get a hybrid class into our fall schedule. Schedules were due the next day (a Friday), but she agreed to hold the schedule until Monday so I could write a description for the schedule.
Last spring, I offered my courses in a problem/project-based format where students designed and built three projects, exploring the physics within those contexts. Typically, I ran one day of class and they ran the other. On the "class" day, students completed physics labs and other activities that provided the foundation for their projects while they worked on their projects the other day. So, it wasn't a huge leap for me to envision continuing one day with me in charge and off loading their project work to unscheduled times.
Potential Benefits
Students
For students, my hybrid format offers location and temporal flexibility. Other than the three hours per week with me, the other 9-15 hours of physics learning can be done wherever and whenever is convenient for the students and their teammates. They may gain a reduction in required travel time (and money). More importantly, in this format, students will gain skills in time management and accentuate their self-motivation. There is no way students will survive this class without taking considerable responsibility for their learning.
Faculty
Faculty also may gain location and temporal flexibility with a potential reduction in required travel time (and money).
A significant gain is the potential for greater one-on-one interaction with each student by moving some of the interactions online. As much as I try to reach each student individually in class, it is impossible to partition my time. However, with regular online assignments, I interact with each student individually and the students must interact with each other weekly in writing.
Institution
We may increase student retention by making our class schedules more flexible and help address parking demands. In conversations with architects about our master plan, I learned our college's growth is limited by available parking. By offering hybrids, we can also be more efficient with our room utilization. In fact, we may not need such specialized facilities as a large physics lab if we can design future learning spaces that will accommodate a dozen hybrid physics students.
As a physics class project, these students built robots that are tested in "robot soccer" |
Potential Drawbacks
Students
Many students may find it too easy to get off track and/or not keep up with their work. This is a very different style of class for them. Some may prioritize their hybrid class lower since it doesn't have the same urgency of a class that meets more often. Moreover, students might miss some socialization opportunities by being on campus less.
Faculty
This format is new for faculty too. Faculty may find that hybrid courses take more preparation (e.g. structuring assignments for the out-of-class time, creating online assignments).
While national teaching models argue for reduced class sizes, extra loading for teaching, and additional pay for course preparation, is there a push to do all of this with the same policies as we currently have for traditional classes? There may be an expectation that faculty teaching hybrid/online courses will spend the same hours on campus as those with traditional schedules. I am also wary of doing this for FTSE sake -- there may be a push to use hybrid and online courses as a means to generate more FTSE in the same space for the same (or less) cost. My reasons for hybrids come more from a desire to teach more effectively.
Institution
Colleges will face challenges as more hybrid courses are offered. They may find that it costs more to serve fewer students. They also will need to redefine and manage policies regarding faculty accountability and room scheduling. Through all this, everyone must continue to ensure the accountability for student learning.
How Will I Know If It Is Working?
The answer is complicated by my approach! As a scientist, I know that useful experiments typically control all but one variable. However, I have always been supremely unscientific about my approach to teaching and learning. In addition to offering all of my courses in a hybrid mode, I'm also experimenting with various other instructional novelties this semester.
Project Based
Instead of covering physics in a topical, chapter-based format, I've developed three projects for each course that provide a context for the physics. In PHY 111, students begin the semester by building a water balloon launcher with the goal of hitting me. The second project is to launch an egg over a 10 foot wall and hit a target without the egg breaking. Did I mention they have to build a medieval siege engine (e.g. catapult, trebuchet, onager, etc.) to do it? Finally, they have to build a wheeled vehicle to transport an ostrich egg around an obstacle and get as close to a wall as possible, but not too close (since 25% of the egg will be hanging off the front end of the vehicle). For their first project, the PHY 112 students cannibalize electronics parts from broken VCRs, etc. to get the supplies to build a robot. Next, they create their own CD and CD player (using a pocket LASER pointer) that "plays" middle C (I'll give extra kudos for systems that play a one octave scale and even more kudos for any that play a recognizable song). Finally, they need to design the means by which to travel to a planet in the closest solar system (Alpha Centauri) and back within their lifetime.
David Weaver monitors the progress of a robot soccer match |
No Tests
I noticed that beyond a driver's license office, the only place that people encounter tests is in school. Thus, I decided that I could develop more authentic ways of assessing student knowledge and a better way to evaluate their performance.
To get a "C" in the class, students need to participate in class and all the weekly online activities. They also submit a weekly journal of their physics activities (this is how I'm tracking how much time they spend on their class) and will begin submitting a weekly Microsoft Project plan for their current projects. At the end of each project, they each need to submit a robust, coherent project model that details the verbal, visual, and symbolic aspects of the physics involved, plus each group will submit a digital story of the project.
To get a "B," students need to also write a formal technical paper about each of their projects.
An "A" requires an additional paper for each of the projects where they explore how the physics of the moment applies to something in their life (hobby, interest, etc.). All submissions are deemed acceptable, or not, by me. If not acceptable, students get it back with guidance as to how to make it acceptable.
All Digital Submissions
For the first time ever, all work submitted by students will be paperless.
Digital Story Telling
Rather than the ubiquitous (and sometimes "pointless") PowerPoint presentations, we are experimenting with student teams creating digital video stories about each of their projects. I have "trained" each of the teams to use Apple's iMovie to create a 5-7 minute movie that details the research, development, construction, performance, etc. of their projects.
Conclusion
My theory is that the hybrid/flex time course format will work well for most of my students and for me. After twelve years of teaching in a traditional time format, I am finding that I have to significantly modify my own time management so that I can keep students doing meaningful work in class and outside class while maintaining a positive class atmosphere.
We are in the 4th week of this semester and I am almost caught up with the assessment of what I have asked them to do. I hope to stay ahead next semester. However, I probably would have said the same thing at this time of the semester for the last 20 years!
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