Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 3550

Why Not Blend Face-to-Face and Online Course Environments?

by Anthony P. Trippe

Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

Since before the middle ages, the preferred environment for student learning has been the lecturing professor and the listening student. Recently, theory and technology has caused this traditional educational model to be challenged. As one of the drivers of change, distance learning courses offered over the Internet have shifted the professor’s lecture role to one which has a great emphasis on being a guide, a mentor and a facilitator. This paradigm shift has produced research projects and journal articles which argue both sides of the question concerning which environment (classroom or distance) provides for better student learning. It is the intent of this paper to promote a hybrid learning environment built on the best features of the face-to-face and distance learning environments. Hybrid or "blended courses" typically mix distance learning technology with traditional classroom approaches. For instance, one form of a hybrid course might meet 50% of the time, in class, face-to-face, once a week. The other 50% of class time would be conducted via the Internet. This paper examines both the classroom and Internet environments with respect to student satisfaction and to student learning levels. Based on the comparison results, the paper concludes that blended, hybrid courses can better serve a wide spectrum of selected student learning styles and yield high quality learning outcomes.

Introduction

From the mid-1990s until the turn of the century, higher education course activities were conducted either in the traditional classroom setting, often using the lecture format, or in the virtual classroom setting using computer and networking technologies. During this time period, more and more brick and mortar leaning institutions augmented their classroom offering with courses offered via the Internet (1). New competitor institutions, which provided their courses strictly at a distance, sprang up. Some of the startups prospered and grew while others were short lived (2).

As the twentieth century came to an end, another alternative began to appear – the hybrid course (3). One form of hybrid blending came out of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. FDU required all of students to take at least one online course every year leading to a blended degree program. Rochester Institute of Technology in New York required that every course have some online components (4). RIT provided the support tools in order for faculty to implement this blended course requirement. Course formats which substituted Internet delivered learning

“Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Trippe, A. (2003, June), Why Not Blend Face To Face And Online Course Environments? Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12617