Hybrid classes are preventing students from achieving their best performance in an academic setting.
For those who don’t know, a hybrid classroom setup allows both students in-person and at home to attend the same lecture. The teacher speaks to both in-person students, and a video recording software.
The main reasons that the hybrid classroom setup is ineffective for students are the huge gap in learning pace and lack of social communication between students.
Another reason that hybrid classrooms aren’t the ideal learning environment is that there’s a huge difference in academic advancement when comparing students learning at home versus in-person.
When providing academic content for two completely different groups of people, those two groups will be at different learning stages. Students at home have so many distractions preventing them from being focused during the lecture. A hybrid classroom setting makes these distractions even worse because the teacher is likely focused on presenting the content and engaging with in-person students versus those watching at home.
The direct engagement with the content that in-person students experience likely allows them to understand more from the lecture compared to those at home.
A quote from Scott Winstead, writer for My eLearning World says that “Some students may choose to linger around for a while and then watch a bunch of video classes in one sitting, while others would rather make the interactive class part of their daily/weekly routine.” Providing an academic environment that’s strictly in-person or online will likely improve a student’s ability to perform compared to other classmates.
“Some students struggle with the organizational skills required for online study. For example, online courses often require greater time management skills and the ability to prioritize assignments”. Genevieve Carlton, writer for the website The Best Schools says that students attending from home may experience a lack of enthusiasm for participating in class. Without a good academic setting, some students may feel inclined to do the bare minimum versus producing their best quality work.
Hybrid classes also aren’t as effective for students due to the lack of possible communication. The best way that students can learn about course material is not only from the professor, but from each other too.
A student’s ability to explain their understanding of course content to another classmate is important because it allows them to put the material into their own words. Communication between students is crucial for success because those struggling to understand the material can always ask a classmate for help.
The hybrid class environment prevents students at-home from communicating with their peers. While of course it’s not impossible for them to communicate for help, not having a good social academic environment makes this much more difficult.
“Some will miss the intellectual and social stimulation of on-campus classes that enables them to build friendships and to network. Depending on your learning style, you may miss the instructor’s body language and verbal or voice cues that can enhance communication.”
A quote from Susie Zappia, writer for the online academic website SeattlePI, shows that social stimulation between both students and professors is critical to providing a quality learning environment. One common aspect between almost all majors in college is networking.
The ability to make friendships and help build paths for each other is so important. A hybrid learning environment doesn’t allow networking nearly as much compared to in-person learning.
The hybrid classroom model isn’t as effective compared to exclusively in-person or at-home learning. While the argument given shows preference to in-person learning, even at-home learning is still better than a hybrid classroom because at least the professor can give direct attention to just online attendants.
The best way that students can get the most out of the college experience is to show up in-person, and practice networking with others so that they know how to communicate in their career.
