Hybrid Courses @GGC

Background
To ascertain the viability of offering hybrid courses at GGC, a pilot was initiated in Fall 2008. Drs. Nannette Napier and Stella Smith each taught a hybrid section of ITEC 1001 Introduction to Computing. In Spring 2009, five hybrid sections of ITEC 1001 (all MWF) were taught by Nannette Napier, Sonal Dekhane, and Stella Smith. In Fall 2009, five hybrid sections of ITEC 1001 were scheduled to meet on MW. These hybrid sections were identified in Banner in the course titles and were taught by Nannette Napier, Sonal Dekhane, Stella Smith, and Yan Ding. Additional courses added to the hybrid format were Digital Media, taught by Xin Xu, and Genetics, taught by Jim Nolan. All hybrid courses in this pilot phase were taught in the School of Science and Technology. At midpoint and end-of-semester Fall 2008, a survey was administered to ascertain student satisfaction with the hybrid format. The researchers compared assessment of student learning in hybrid sections versus traditional sections, summarized student perceptions of the hybrid course, and shared faculty insights on teaching hybrid courses. This survey was repeated in Spring, 2009 with the additional courses. Results of both surveys can be found here.

Hybrid Fellows Project

Training
In Spring 2010, Georgia Gwinnett College committed to the Hybrid Fellows Project, providing selected faculty with additional compensation to support hybrid course development. Faculty attended a full-day workshop on May 13, although they were required to participate in an online hybrid course as students from April 25 May 20, 2010. Thereafter meetings were held as Wimba sessions throughout the summer so that off-campus faculty could participate without traveling to campus. The Hybrid Fellows Schedule 2010-2011 showing all the sessions with content is available here.

Assessment
The Center for Teaching Excellence conducted prior-to-launch and mid-semester course checks to ascertain if the fellows were demonstrating the use of techniques and best practices acceptable for hybrid courses. The assessment documents were developed after researching other university sites wellknown for their blended learning initiatives and adapting materials to the colleges needs. These documents are displayed here under the topic Hybrid Course Checklist. Faculty were told of this process at the one-day workshop and were prepared for the evaluation. They received feedback from the center with comments on the checklist document so any areas needing attention were readily apparent. The Center for Teaching Excellence garnered feedback from the Hybrid Fellows through two methods:

a survey of faculty attending a January 2011 meeting which asked questions related to the training of the fellows and their suggestions for improvements to the process; and a focus group led by Dr. Linda Gilbert whose goal was to promote discussion among the fellows about the program.

Questions asked included the following: What would you recommend based upon your experiences so far? What should the CTE do to keep students on track? How well did the CTE prepare you and what could they have done better?

The original hybrid course survey on student satisfaction was adapted for multidisciplinary use and administered to a number of students taught by the Hybrid Fellows during Spring 2011. Those survey results can be found here.

The Next Wave of Hybrid Fellows

In May, 2011 the second Hybrid Fellows workshop was held with representatives from all GGC schools. The Fellows were awarded a stipend for course redesign based upon their Deans recommendation. The schedule for this workshop and the summer seminars conducted both face-to-face and through video conferencing may be found here. Future workshops initiating the latest group of Fellows will continue to be offered in May prior to the academic year in which new hybrid courses are launched. Faculty interested in teaching in the hybrid format are asked to express that interest to their Dean.