September is upon us and school has begun for students and teachers everywhere. This year’s back-to-school planning has been different—and more stressful—than ever before due to the global pandemic. Governments and school boards have spent the summer considering various learning scenarios. Many schools across Canada and around the world have decided to implement hybrid learning in an attempt to address the shift away from the typical classroom environment.

What is hybrid learning?

As many schools across the nation are adopting a blended learning scenario, whereby students learn in the classroom some days of the week and learn at home other days, hybrid learning seems to be the teaching method of choice for most schools. Hybrid learning is a method whereby teachers instruct students who are in the classroom and—at the same time—instruct students who are remote learning from home via computers, tablets, and assorted Ed Tech. 

The COVID slide

As the country settles into the fall season, and schools reopen amidst the pandemic, teachers and students are grappling with more than the proverbial summer slide. Schools from coast to coast are facing a new educational obstacle in the wake of this unprecedented time. This obstacle has become known as the COVID slide. 

According to an article posted on Education Week, experts estimate that some students may have regressed by half or more of a year of learning. No matter how good of a job educators did adjusting to new ways of teaching last spring when schools were forced to close their doors due to COVID, regression and learning loss were inevitable. Will hybrid learning prove to be a successful way to address this huge learning loss?

Preparing for hybrid learning

Hybrid learning during a pandemic will no doubt pose challenges for both teachers and students alike, which is why emotional well-being is more vital than ever before. The following excerpt from the book The Third Path: A Relationship-Based Approach to Student Well-Being and Achievement effectively sums up the importance of well-being—for both teachers and students—and how the well-being of each is dependent on the other:

“Educators’ well-being must be among the top priorities of education. After all, educators cannot support students in a long-term and sustainable way if they are struggling with their own well-being. When educators are happy and positive, their students will be happy and positive as well. When educators are calm, grounded, and connected, they will be able to help their students feel the same. The single best route to supporting the well-being of students is to support the well-being of educators.”

When teachers and students are emotionally healthy, learning can occur. In The Third Path, authors Dr. David Tranter, Lori Carson, and Tom Boland describe the importance of the student-educator relationship. They set out eight conditions that support student well-being and academic achievement as follows:

1. Safety
   Students need to feel emotionally safe in order to explore and learn.

2. Regulation
   Students need regulating relationships and supportive environments.

3. Belonging
   Belonging comes from all the moments of connection with others.

4. Positivity
   Every student has unseen potential. Positive feelings lead to optimal functioning.

5. Engagement
   Engagement is about being fully open to learning, connected to others, able to take on complex challenges, and reach accurate conclusions.

6. Identity
   School is important for students’ exposure to a variety of ways of being, and for them to develop a stronger sense of who they truly are.

7. Mastery
   A feeling of accomplishment is essential to help motivate students to continue to learn.

8. Meaning
   Meaning is a powerful force for ongoing motivation and personal fulfillment.

Together, these conditions create an environment in which students can flourish. The following video describes, in more detail, the eight conditions that support student well-being and academic achievement:

Ideas for a hybrid learning scenario

Managing a hybrid learning scenario will be new to most teachers. For it to be successful, teachers and students (at home and in class) will need fast and reliable Internet, proper digital devices (laptop, computer, or tablet; webcam), and lessons that work both for in-class and remote learners.

Here are three ideas teachers could implement to help with the hybrid learning method:

• Have clear goals for each class. Create lessons that work for students in the classroom and at home. This will help students to understand they are part of one class.

• Use live chat rooms. In addition to using a web cam, so remote learners can hear and see in-class instruction, host live chat rooms to encourage interaction between students.

• Use Ed Tech resources like Pear Deck to create engaging, media-rich lessons. Pear Deck integrates with tools that most teachers already use, such as Google Slides and Microsoft. Users can easily insert text, images, and drawings into ready-made slide templates.

How to assess student learning

Because some students are learning in class while others are learning remotely, traditional assessment methods will need adjusting. Assessment for all students can be done digitally. Try these ideas:

• Post questions, prompts, or open-ended essay topics in online discussion forums. Students can respond with their ideas, as well as their thoughts on others’ posts.

• Create online quizzes, drag and drop activities, trivia games, and flashcards for quick assessment of student understanding.

• Ask students to create digital presentations to show their knowledge. WeVideo is an online video editor that millions of students are using around the world. Its Education platform enables learners to creatively communicate their ideas using the editor’s massive library of templates, images, audio and video clips, backgrounds, and sound effects. Students can write text and captions, import files, and record voice overs for their videos.

Leaning into global competencies and what this means for assessment

Now more than ever, students are forced to take ownership of their learning. As such, it’s imperative that students develop global competency skills while they learn (which we explore more fully in an earlier article). Shining a light on global competencies will assist students in being better able to meet the rapidly shifting and changing learning scenarios brought on by the pandemic.

Global Competency Skills

• critical thinking and problem solving

• innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship

• learning to learn/self-awareness and self-direction

• collaboration

• communication

• global citizenship and sustainability

Global competencies foster learning on a deeper level by providing students with the necessary tools to adapt to diverse situations and become lifelong learners. In order to properly assess students going forward, teachers will need to know how each student learns, celebrate their potential, recognize their challenges, acknowledge inequity, and use culture as a resource.

When it comes to student assessment, author and education expert Andy Hargreaves says it best:

“On assessment: measure what you value instead of valuing only what you can measure.”

Andy Hargreaves
Author, advisor, research speaker, and professor at Boston College and the University of Ottawa

. . . . . 

It goes without saying that hybrid learning poses challenges, but there are also numerous opportunities for student engagement and success. What are your current plans for hybrid learning? How will you adapt your teaching strategies with the possibility of the next COVID wave and the onset of cooler weather? We’d love to hear how you’re approaching the shift from a traditional learning environment. Please share your ideas in the comments section.

Explore hybrid learning for your classroom with an Edwin FREE Trial through October 1st, 2021.

REFERENCES

Edwin Classroom.
“K-12 Schools This Fall: A Closer Look at Blended Learning.” Edwin Stories, August 31, 2020, https://edwin.nelson.com/edwinstories/2020/08/k12-schools-a-closer-look-at-blended-learning

Sawchuk, Stephen.
“5 Tips for Measuring and Responding to COVID-19 Learning Loss.” Education Week, June 12, 2020, https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/06/12/5-tips-for-measuring-and-responding-to.html

Tranter, Dr. David, Lori Carson, and Tom Boland.
The Third Path: A Relationship-Based Approach to Student Well-Being and Achievement. Toronto: Nelson Education Limited, 2018. https://school.nelson.com/the-third-path-2/

Colman, Heather.
“9 Ways to Assess Student Learning Online.” iSpring eLearning Blog, July 3, 2020, https://www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/8-ways-to-assess-online-student-learning

Teachology.
“How do I assess student learning online?” https://www.teachology.ca/knowledgebase/how-do-i-assess-student-learning-online/

Safir, Shane.
“Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity.” Edutopia, January 21, 2016, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-vs-equality-shane-safir

Hargreaves, Andy.
http://www.andyhargreaves.com/