by Abigail Ramirez
Daily Lobo
UNM is going to have an expanded catalogue of hybrid classes for the fall semester.
In a hybrid course, half of the students enrolled in a class would meet with their instructor and the other half of the students would attend class online through WebCT, said English professor Scott Sanders.
Each portion of the class would take turns at having one face-to-face course with their instructor and one online class, he said. This would create more seats for students to be able to get into the class, he said.
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"The goal is to reach more interaction - with students working with each other and more student-to-instructor interaction," Sanders said.
The courses might bring more online chats about the curriculum among teachers and students, he said.
Instructors will be able to track if students are talking about course-related subjects and signing into the online portion of the class, he said.
Student Sara Garcia said she did not like the idea of hybrid classes.
"I don't think I could do it," she said. "I need a teacher to be there to explain it to me and show it to me."
A study of hybrid courses showed increased retention rates, improved learning and reduced costs, according to the National Center for Academic Transformation Web site.
The percentage of students who received a C or better in general psychology at UNM increased from 61 percent to 71 percent after the class switched to a hybrid format in 2001, according to the study.
"For someone who doesn't want to attend class, it will be easier because they only have to attend class once," Sanders said. "This helps students want and need to be in class and encourages attendance."
Student Tempest Thornton said hybrid classes would provide students with more resources.
"I think it would help me personally to get extra materials online that the professor probably couldn't hand out in class," he said. "It would also encourage me to communicate with my professor if I had specific questions that I didn't get to ask in class."
More sections will be offered in the fall for English, biology and anatomy courses, Sanders said.
Online courses will have a $100 technical fee for use of a computer.
The hybrid courses are in response to a high demand for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sanders said.
"There are only so many classrooms on campus available during these times," he said. "If we increase the number of courses offered at these times, more students will be able to get into the classes they want at the times they want."
Technical and expository writing were the first hybrid classes at UNM, offered for the spring 2006 semester, Sanders said.
The only complaint was the online and in-class portions of the course could have fit together better, Sanders said.
Learning how to integrate online work with in-class lessons, finding new ways to teach and improving teaching methods are some of the challenges hybrid instructors face, he said.
