What Can College Teachers Learn From Students' Experiential Narratives in Hybrid Courses?: A Text Mining Method of Longitudinal Data

Technology-Enabled Hybrid Pedagogy

Technology-enabled classroom has recently attracted attention for many educators (Ramey, 2012). Its wide application in both professional and higher educational contexts has made e-learning technologies a global phenomenon (Esnault, 2008). Technologies in the classroom include computers, class websites and blogs, digital microphones, mobile devices, online media, and online study tools (Ramey, 2012). These technologies and their applications have grown exponentially (Dexter, 2017). Web 2.0 technologies and many emerging applications (e.g., chat room, Facebook, tele-conferencing, e-mails, Wi-Fi, mobile devices, etc., to name a few) have increasingly gaining momentum in many traditional and non-traditional classrooms (Buchholz, 2019; Dexter, 2017; Jones & Vollmers, 2008; Murray & Jackson, 2009; Ramey, 2012). For example, the incorporation of these technologies has become widespread among Australian universities (Gosper, McNeili, Woo, Phillips, Preston, & Green, 2011). Similar technologies have been used in the U.S. college classrooms (Jones & Vollmers, 2008). Canada’s OCAD University’s website also claims the administration’s support in creating technology-enabled learning and teaching, ranging from “from hybrid courses that combine face-to-face and online components to fully online courses……through resource sharing, training workshops, and one-on-one consultations” (https://www.ocadu.ca/services/faculty-curriculum-development-centre/e-learning.htm). In the business and professional setting, it is estimated that users of e-learning can increase their productivity over 50%, while this mode of learning will save between 50% and 70% in on-the-job training (Dexter, 2017).

As a growing industry sector, Pappas (2015) reports that, according to a 2013 report by e-learning Industry, in 2011, about $35.6 billion was spent on self-paced E-learning across the globe (Pappas, 2013). In the U.S., e-learning market is estimated to be around USD$190 billion in 2018 and will grow at 7% from 2019 to 2025 (Global Market Insights, 2015). Pappas (2015) observes that around 46% college students have taken at least one online course and it is estimated by 2019, around half of all college classes will be built on a variety of E-learning platforms. e-learning technologies have been extended to a professional setting. It is reported that about 41.7% of Fortune 500 companies use education technologies to train their employees (Pappas, 2015).

According to Global Market Insights (2015), the e-learning market includes three areas of players: technology, providers, and end-user. In terms of the technology players, it includes online e-learning, learning management system (LMS), mobile e-learning, rapid e-learning, virtual classroom, and others (Global Market Insights, 2015). Both service and contents providers have made up of the Provider sector, while the end users include academic, corporate, and government (Global Market Insights, 2015).

Thanks for the rapid developments of these instructional technologies (such as Blackboard or Moodle) and ancillary platforms to facilitate the delivery of contents (such as digital reality technologies and mobile devices) (Buchholz, 2019; Dexter 2017), many college instructors have developed a hybrid and flipped their classroom approach to create a more student-centered environment.

According to NING (n.d.), a hybrid classroom refers to a pedagogical approach “where the students meet face-to-face with the teacher, has extensive Internet content, uses only relevant technology and strives to provide real world context so students leave skilled, knowledgeable and well prepared” (n.p.). The emphasis on cultivating students’ life-long learning abilities through the enhancement of information literacy or technology-enabled learning has transformed the pedagogical approaches used by many college instructors through technology-enabled or-enhanced hybrid pedagogy. Von Heupt (2018) notes that a hybrid classroom is characterized with its technological capacity to integrate traditional face-to-face education with e-learning technologies (such as video conferencing) to allow participants in remote locations to take part in classroom discussion synchronously, to make the best of their learning time through easy access to course materials, knowledge exchange with other students, and networking with their peers.

The introduction of online and hybrid pedagogies is claimed to have the advantages of the face-to-face instruction method because it “combines the best of both worlds, providing opportunities for reaching students with differing learning styles, engaging students in a variety of activities, and presenting both in-person and online content” (Katz, 2008, p. 93). Megan, Bessie, and Anita (2017) empirically examine the effects of course modality changes on student knowledge, skills/performance, and communication apprehension from a public speaking curriculum. Their findings also demonstrate that a hybrid/blended instructional mode improves the quality of instruction, and positive student learning outcomes (as measured by the metrics above) (Megan et al., 2017). However, in spite of the hype about the potential benefits of a hybrid and flipped classroom pedagogy, empirical studies have only shown inconclusive effects on students’ learning outcomes (Keller, Hassell, Webber, & Johnson, 2009). For example, Keller et al. (2009) use a between-subject experiment to compare whether a traditional and a hybrid instructional method will lead to better academic performance (measured by students’ course grade). Their findings conclude that students’ academic performance is not significantly influenced by the modes of instructions, even after controlling SAT scores, performance in its pre-requisite account course, gender, transfer status, and age (Keller et al., 2009).