by: David A. Milazzo

When teaching a Hybrid class, one needs to start thinking about many new classroom and non-classroom activities, rules, guidelines, assessments etc.  I had the pleasure to redesign, and have the pleasure to implement the Hybrid version of Advanced Algebra and Trigonometry (MAT111) for the Mathematics department.  The big challenge of the design was attempting to find the delicate balance or recipe mix between in-class (instructor lecture), activities (guided practice) and online (independent learning at home) for a Hybrid course in Mathematics.

Truth be told, I was a little leery at first with the thought of teaching a 4 credit hour course and only seeing my students for 2 contact hours per week, but when I started to map out the course and the assessments, I found that if a course is designed well enough, it works!  I have PowerPoint presentations from the textbook publishing company in Angel, along with lecture notes and a detailed schedule.  The homework is done through an online assessment tool called MyLabsPlus, by Pearson.  All the assessments are located on this website and the students can access it anywhere internet access is available.  This particular Independent Learning Tool for assessment also allows me to check the amount of time each student spends on each individual question and homework, and it allows me to see a class comparison by question, assignment and grades.

In Angel, the students introduce themselves in an icebreaker activity in Angel which allows them to get to know their fellow classmates more-so than if they only meet in the classroom.  I have the students write introductions and have them read and comment on other peoples intros in an effort to make connections for study groups and note-taking buddies, etc.

I have the course set up so that the students must read their extremely detailed schedule in Angel and follow it to a ‘T”.  The schedule tells the students what PowerPoint and Video Lecture to watch ahead of time so that they will have already been exposed to the content before they come to class (To ensure that the students are doing the prep-work of watching the videos and viewing the presentations, I use the Angel Who-Dun-it tool.  It lets me know who logged, for how log and when for each lecture and presentation).

From here, the class is more of a clarification session or recitation of you will where I go over the concepts again (at a quicker pace than traditional classes) in order to clarify anything that the Independent Learning portion may have left out.  We then go through some examples in class to make sure everyone is one the same page.  I have mini quizzes (1 to 2 questions) periodically that should only take about 5 – 8 minutes at the beginning of class just to reinforce what the students need to work on and what they truly understand.

The tests are done in class so I can see the students’ handwritten work.  This is two-fold; first I get to see the work and find out exactly where a student may have made a mistake in an effort to fix this incorrect notion; second, it helps to ensure that the student is responsible for their own work and not having someone else do the online work outside of class for them.

This is the second 15-week semester that I have taught the Hybrid course and I find it much improved over the first time I taught it.  The students are doing much better this time around and I myself have made adjustments in the delivery of the course to hold the students more accountable for the Independent Learning portion so that they are better prepared for the In-Class portion of the course.  I enjoy it very much and feel that the students are becoming more responsible in the sense that if they do not do the prep-work, they will have a tougher time in class.  As shocking as it may seem, not one student has had anything negative to say about the outside prep-work for the course.  I feel that the students truly understand that they have to be responsible for their education.  With regard to this nice little bonus of student responsibility, I feel that I’m helping the student take charge of their life in a way that is different from what they were taught in high school and that I’m better preparing them for the real world.

All in all, I feel that my Hybrid class that I designed is going very smooth and I feel the students are doing just as well if not better than being in a traditional classroom.  If anyone has any questions or is interested in more information, please feel free to contact me at dmilazzo@niagaracc.suny.edu.

By Ann Catalano

My new best friend in ANGEL world is the RUBRIC.  Why? Because using rubrics has shaved hours off my grading time.  You might think that rubrics are only used for writing projects.  I am here to tell you that that is not the case. Rubrics can be used to grade any type of project. Let me explain.

The courses I teach, by their very nature, are project intensive – and therefore – grading intensive. For example,  I can spend upwards to an hour grading each student’s web pages.  Multiply that by 20 students times 4 projects a semester and you can see how much time is spent on this task.  And that’s just one of my courses.

You can imagine my delight when I discovered how using rubrics in ANGEL could save me time and frustration.  Granted, it takes a little up front work to get the rubric to do what you want it to do, but once the rubric is in place, you will get back hours of your time.

So how does this work? In my case, I develop the rubric based on the project requirements.  Then I decide how much weight to place on each requirement.  For instance, in a web design project I might weigh the accuracy of the coding more than uploading the files to the server.  Once you figure out what you want to use as the criteria and the achievement levels for each criteria, the task of grading each project becomes much less labor intensive.

Here’s what I used to do:

• Open up project files.
• Open up evaluation sheet.
• Review each project requirement.
• Check off each requirement on the Evaluation Sheet and write comments for each one
• Look at the evaluation sheet and determine an overall grade.
• Type the grade into the ANGEL drop box.
• Upload the evaluation sheet to the ANGEL drop box.

Here’s what I do now:

• Open up project.
• Open up rubric.
• Review each project requirement and select appropriate achievement level for each criterion on the rubric.
• Click Save and the grade is automatically computed and entered into ANGEL.
• Write any comments into Message box related to assignment.

I have found that if I have constructed the rubric accurately, the grades that are computed are fair and represent the student’s level of work.  I have to admit, this took a little tweaking to get the achievement levels right on their projects, without having to write the same comments over and over again.

I have been using Rubrics to grade projects in all of my classes this semester and I am finding that my grading goes much faster and is less stressful than in the past.  I actually think my grading is more accurate and objective. After 37 years of teaching, I have finally found a tool that really helps improve the process of grading, an often arduous and frustrating task.

I encourage you to give Rubrics a try. You’ll be glad you did.

Here is a link to one of the rubrics I use in my course. Asset 1 Rubric