HYBRID INSTRUCTION IN RURAL AREAS Leecy Wise, Reconnection Company

 Background experiences in delivering hybrid instruction.  College students (ESL/Freshman English prep)  College instructors (All disciplines)  Adult education instructors (Professional Development)  High school students (Spanish I and II)  Challenges faced with different populations.  Success/Strategy features developed.  Best practices using different delivery tools.

 Resistance to change  Connecting to the screen  Monitor views  Limited communication choices  Reverse empty-nest syndrome

 More training for off-site facilitators  Elimination of self-monitor  accounts and carriers  Visits to off-site classes

 Resistance to change  Perception of “distant”  Lack of training to engage distant students  Fear of machine replacement  Fear of technology  Cheat fear  Fear of class distribution among campuses  Empty-nest syndrome

 Faculty Handbook  Intensive training and practice w/ paid release time  Supervised instruction  Visits to off-site classes

GED FAMILY LITERACY ABE ESL

 Hybrid graduate credit courses did not work.  Online courses did not work. (Moodle)  Onsite workshops had limited success.

 Short and sweet Elluminate Lunch and Learn sessions with PD hours.  Lots of reminders through state listserv and Tech Beat publication.  chiresources.pbworks.com  and phone support  CCCOnline undergraduate courses. (LIA certification.

 Meet once a week  Lab three days with computer program  All instructions and resources online  Class site and blog   Hot Potatoes  Power Point content slides  Additional Web resources: games, pronunciation, images (picture dictionaries), Google Earth

 Resistance to new format  Limited connectivity  Undeveloped independent study skills  Literacy gaps  Lack of adequate lab supervision  “Excused” absences  4-day week  Attitude toward foreign languages  The teenage “thing”

 Daily instructions  Letter to families  Graded daily work  Labels on everything  Permission from principle for late work  Copies of everything to lab facilitator  Personal blogs  Audio clips  Assign role of learning to students  Virtual visits with reports in English

 Train participants for different formats.  Put it in writing through different forms.  Provide accessible orientation or tutorials.  Make expectations perfectly clear.  Make assessment criteria perfectly clear.  Assess, assess, assess..  Performance.  Technology.  Provide constant feedback/rewards.  Insert an onsite visit if possible.

 Discussion is essential with lots of monitoring and clear expectations.  Click, click, click.  Reflection is highly encouraged.  s must be active and available.  Daily or frequent Internet access is required.  Rubrics are highly encouraged.  Flexible but not self-paced.

 Interaction is critical.  Rubrics are highly encouraged.  Have plans A-Z.  Train monitors/facilitators and participants.  Assign a student contact point.

 Use time to mentor and model skills that students can access otherwise.  Model and provide practice in study skills.  Check, check, check.  Model and practice study skills.  Vary interaction every five minutes.  Assess during some sessions.

 Set up personal and class blogs.  Provide permissions and feeds as desired.  Post assignment instructions in class blogs.  Have students post assignments in their blogs.  Invite students to interact with each others’ content.

 Check Web access and installed programs.  Require a trained lab monitor.  Install needed applications, such as Google Earth and other learning applications.  Have online quizzes monitored.

 Learning is invisible. We only know it’s happening by the changes it produces.  Let’s not look for change in only one place.  As we learn, they learn..  in their way,  in their time,  at their pace.

Leecy Wise, Reconnection Company