7 Effective Hybrid Teaching Strategies
Hybrid teaching is quickly becoming one of the most useful teaching methods to use. It doesn’t mean abandoning traditional teaching strategies entirely, though. There are many ways traditional strategies can be adapted to a hybrid learning situation, where some students are learning in person while others are joining the class online. Continue reading to learn how you can optimize your hybrid classroom with useful hybrid teaching techniques using Echo360’s EchoPoll learning engagement platform. These 10 strategies show how you can create an integrated educational experience using hybrid learning.
At the heart of each strategy is our e³ philosophy, which centers on equity, evidence, and engagement.
- Direct instruction
This is the most basic strategy to use for hybrid learning. This involves the teacher using simple language to explain concepts to the students with a few questions as prompts. With EchoPoll’s live lesson capability, this is easily and equitably done through our platform. The platform also includes a countdown timer so the instructor can time their lesson to fit into a predefined time frame.
- Discussion boards
While it can be distracting to have discussion boards running all the time, the instructor can set specific times during the day to use the discussion board, allowing students to talk back and forth about their thoughts on the particular lesson being discussed. In-person students can use their Chromebooks or tablets to take part in the discussion equitably with students learning from home. - Deliver information in more than one way
Since students process information in more than one way, you can benefit students both in the class and at home by using EchoPoll’s content manager to produce presentations that use auditory, visual, and textual information. This ensures that no matter which way each student learns, the information is equitably received by every student. - Assign a dashboard for every student
In EchoPoll, each student has a dashboard where they can access self-paced assignments. The instructor has access to this dashboard so they can see evidence that the student has completed certain assignments. The dashboard can be used for students who are learning in the classroom and those who are learning at home. - Utilize embedded questions during lessons
When teaching in person, you can ask students occasional questions to make sure they understand what you are talking about. The same is true for presentations students view through EchoPoll. With a hybrid classroom, you can ask questions during direct instruction as well as assigning presentations to both in-person and remote students and track their answers, giving you evidence as to how many students are truly understanding the content and driving your follow-up instruction based on where classroom needs develop. - Use completion badges and leaderboards
To engage students in particular learning units, create completion badges that they can earn by earning a minimum score on a quiz, completing a certain number of journaling assignments, or completing other required tasks. Display these prominently to foster friendly competition among the students. This is called gamification and it is very effective in engaging students in their learning. EchoPoll offers gamification features like badges as well as leaderboards that show who is doing best in a certain unit or on a certain long-term assignment on any given day. - Cooperative learning
Cooperative learning strategies keep students engaged because they must work together to solve a problem or find an answer. Rather than competing, each student must contribute to achieve a common goal. This also promotes socialization between in-class and remote students as they work together on games, research assignments, and collective notes.
This is a sampling of the types of teaching strategies you can use to lead an equitable classroom based on evidence provided by students who are engaged in their learning. Because EchoPoll follows WCAG 2.0 standards, you can be sure that all students will have equal accessibility, whether they are in the classroom or at home.
We’re confident that EchoPoll is the perfect answer to your hybrid teaching needs. We invite you to learn more about EchoPoll and how you can use it to enhance your hybrid classroom today.