Standards for Hybrid Courses
 
  The following policies are utilized by Troy University's Atlantic Region to insure academic rigor and standards of qualify for each on-line session.
 

 

Courses conducted in a hybrid format should  meet a set of minimum r standards for the “on-line” portion of the course.  As a starting point, the on-line activities for one of the weeks that are conducted using Blackboard must equate to 5 hours of “in class activity.” This can be a combination of postings, individual or group exercises, class interaction using the discussion board or the chat room and instructor feedback.

 The course syllabus must clearly state:

This is a hybrid learning course.  This means that while a most of the 45 contact hours of the course schedule will be in-class sessions, there are online meetings, exercises, and/or discussions scheduled in the course Blackboard site.  For online class meetings, students are evaluated in their participation and the fulfillment of requirements and deadlines in the same manner as for class meetings.

The following guidance should be specified in the syllabus for the weeks that the class is meeting on-line:  

  • Specific assignments or activities to include detailed and clear instructions and student expectations.
  • Instructions on the use of Blackboard for each assignment or activity.
  • The specific grading scheme that will be used to evaluate the on-line assignments and student participation.
  • The method of instructor feedback that will be used for the on-line assignments.
  • The equivalent number of class hours represented by the hybrid session.

To assist in establishing these guidelines some “best practice” suggestions are attached.

  1. Example of Guidelines for On-line Discussions (general)
  2. Example of Guidelines for On-line Discussions (specific – PA 6624)
  3. Student tips for improving discussion postings
  4. Example of a rubric for grading on-line discussions.
  5. Chat Guidelines and Assessment Rubric