Oops! I bet you are wondering where the Thirteen Days to Creating a Hybrid College Class, Day 6’s blog post is.
During our winter break, I emailed, graded and created lessons for the students.
I never stopped “hybrid teaching” for more than a day. We visited friends and it was surprisingly convenient to take a little time each day to keep up with the grading as it was posted by the students and still have time to enjoy with our friends.
But uhm…..while driving home from Ohio and seeing these wonderful friends, I totally forgot we were to have class on Day 6. Totally. forgot!
Once I realized it, we were too far away from home for us to get there in time for me to teach class the next day.
I think it was Freudian…I planned for day 6 in the syllabus supplement, so at least at some point the day was on my mind.
Somewhere in there it slipped my mind.
No matter–the wonders of the internet saved the day and everyone was notified by email before the class. I didn’t want anyone to show up at 8:10 a.m. and my smiling face wouldn’t be there.
Today is Day 7 of teaching a hybrid class.
Speaking of the wonders of internet, let’s talk about email…..or maybe it’s a headache. I suppose it all depends upon who you are communicating with and its importance.
Since this hybrid class is studied both in class and at home, students have two ways for emailing me. One is through the college’s email and one is through my personal email.
The professors are encouraged to only use our college email, but in a case like this hybrid I thought it was more important for the students to be able to have quick access to me than going through the school email.
Sometimes we have success, sometimes we don’t.
Primarily, the tricky part is turning in homework assignments in a timely manner. Since I am checking both email accounts as well as the coursework upload files, it is difficult to keep everything organized.
Next time, I will A. show the students how to access their student accounts and how to use them and B. we will only use the upload file and file assignment feature and C. I’ll keep a check list (or at least use my gradebook, duh…) to track completed assignments and those which are late.
At present, I find myself clicking back and forth from the coursework page to the email to see if the students have turned in their assignments by the due date and time.
Oh gosh, it’s crazy!
Plus, since the students are working from home there have been several times where they have sent to two assignments in one file upload and not told me. It becomes a case of:
ME: Student X, I don’t have your Youtube critique.
STUDENT X: You don’t? I sent it in with the chapter homework. The assignment due date window was going to close and I thought it would be better to send them together than not get it in one time.
ME: Good thought! Unfortunately, I didn’t know that. I wonder where it is?
STUDENT X: I’ll email it to you again. Which account?
ME: My college email address is fine.
STUDENT X: I forgot. I typed it on my dad’s computer and I don’t have it here. I’ll send it once I get home.
And so forth and so on……
Another headache? One student doesn’t receive my emails until five hours later. His network is crazy slow. What’s that about?
I’d say one big challenge of creating a hybrid class is the internet. If it’s unreliable, you are in for some real headaches.
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
