The proliferation of people who have become suddenly “experts” in talking and writing about hybrid teaching has reached the point where it is frequently considered “the worst of both worlds,” both in-person and online. During and after a semester teaching a master’s course at a German chair known for excellent hybrid education, I had the opportunity to co-author research with that team, which we have now published in the No. 8 journal in the JCR ranking under the “Computer Science” category, with an impact factor of 10.5. This means being showcased in front of leading specialists in the field (who would promptly correct any minor mistake) and that improving hybrid teaching in educational systems worldwide will have a very high impact both on science and its social influence.
The research focused on university teaching, analyzing 31 cases. Three types of synchronous hybrid courses were identified: 1) unidirectional design, which does not require specific considerations for the hybrid format; 2) design that addresses in-person and online students separately, requiring a parallel approach; 3) design fostering interactivity between both types of participants, which requires comprehensive consideration.
The interactive design is the one that yields the best results. In this design, I was fortunate to participate at the beautiful city and university of Würzburg. Students in one of the courses mentioned difficulties in speaking English, while I did not know German and had prepared all the material in English for a dialogic education. Excellent technology and the students’ familiarity with comprehensive hybrid teaching allowed us to transform this challenge into great creativity: we developed a new approach, called “dialogic teaching beyond words,” which was later published jointly in a scientific article.
The intellectual, scientific, and pedagogical learning outcomes were impressive, but even more wonderful were the interactions, ideas, and emotions we were able to share.
First in Google Scholar in the categories of "Gender Violence" and "Social Impact".