Hybrid Teaching Considerations

This document provides a quick checklist of considerations if you are planning hybrid teaching. The DEO Hybrid Teaching page contains more details of technical considerations depending on the type of room in which you are teaching, as well as ideas for planning and delivering effective hybrid sessions.

Hybrid teaching – and learning – can be challenging, both technically and pedagogically, if you aren’t used to it. When planning for a hybrid session, taking the following into consideration can help make sure things run smoothly for you and your students:

Check out the space and equipment

• Know what kind of room you have, and what technology will be available when you arrive. The list of Central Teaching Spaces will tell you whether your room is set up to support hybrid teaching.
• Think about the type of session you are planning and what you need to broadcast from the room, for example your voice, slides, a whiteboard, props or equipment, or in-class student voices.
• Remember that the online students will only see what is broadcast to them, so you might need to re-think how you present some information. For example, if you’re used to writing on a whiteboard or blackboard, consider using an online whiteboard instead.
• If possible, get in the room before running a session, in order to familiarize yourself with the size, acoustics, equipment, and – ideally – to try out the approaches you are planning to use.

Prepare your students

• If students in the room are going to be working with remote peers or participating in online activities such as polls, then tell them in advance to bring an appropriate web-enabled device to the session, eg laptop, tablet or phone.
• Consider how you will engage with remote students, for example using text chat as a communication channel to mitigate potential audio issues. Be clear about how they will be able to ask questions, and when they can expect a reply.
• Make sure any links to or instructions about relevant activities or resources are shared before the session, including how to access live sessions. Ideally share PowerPoint slides beforehand.
• Even if your students are used to being in an online live session, the experience of a hybrid session is quite different. It’s easy for them to feel a bit isolated from the rest of the group, so consider how you can build a sense of community with the whole group. Buffer time at the beginning and end of a session, to allow for settling in, gathering thoughts and getting used to the set up, is an effective way to do this.

Prepare your session

• As always, make sure you have a Plan B in case you encounter unforeseen problems either in the room or remotely, and let remote students know what the backup is if they have issues connecting, for example a recording and shared document.
• Bear in mind when planning that things are likely to take longer when you have some students online, for example in setting up activities, providing or repeating instructions, and possible time lags affecting the rhythm of the session.
• Consider whether online and in-person students will do the same activities, for example a poll can work well simultaneously in both contexts. On the other hand, might there be particular opportunities offered by either in-person or online?
• For pair or group work, it’s difficult to achieve a good audio experience if you try to mix online and in-class students in groups. Online students can use breakout groups to discuss, which will need setting up in the session. It’s then worth considering how students can report back to the whole group, and whether that needs to be via audio (in which case in-class students would need a microphone to be heard by online students). See Hybrid teaching scenarios for more ideas on how to set up effective hybrid group work.
• Think about which parts of the session you want to record. Try to plan the recording so that you avoid the need for editing post session, eg by stopping and starting it at relevant points. If you are in a hybrid equipped room, recording may be automated. If you are working with a DIY set up, you’ll need to use Teams or Collaborate to record manually.

Running your session

• Explain to students how the hybrid session will work, so that they understand that, for example, there may be delays and repetitions
• Be mindful of what the online and in-person students are seeing at any time, for example on the projector in the room or via the conferencing tool you are using. If you are primarily using Collaborate or Teams then it may be easier if students in the room join that session on their own devices, rather than looking at the screen at the front, then they can also make use of the text chat which can be a useful backchannel for the whole group.
• Alternatively consider using a shared document eg Word, or Padlet to collect student contributions and capture views and emerging consensus as part of the session.
• Switch your focus regularly between online and in-person groups so that both feel engaged.
• Allow time to organise breakout room activities and to make sure that these are inclusive for students, for example by dropping in on online breakout groups to check in with them, and making sure they know exactly what the task is, and what time they have to complete it.
• If audio quality from the room is poor, repeat key points for the benefit of the online participants, and give them time to ask for clarification if necessary. A poll to check understanding (eg using TurningPoint or Mentimeter) works well for all students, online and in class.
• Make sure you are prepared if you need to switch between sharing different types of content during the session, and allow time for this, eg presentation then whiteboard. For audio, video and screen sharing in Collaborate see the Collaborate FAQS. For MS Teams see the Live Teaching guidance.
• If your students are new to hybrid sessions, consider asking for their feedback on how the session went, as they may offer suggestions for easy-to-implement ways to improve their experience.

Useful links

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching - Active learning in hybrid and physically distanced classrooms