Webinar: The Hybrid Academy – A Professional Development for faculty teaching Hybrid Courses.
(Watch webinar recording here)
The presenters: Jessica Handley and Roberto Rivera Instructional Designers from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.- February 27, 2020
- Brief description of the topic: It is evident that the demand for online and hybrid courses continues to grow. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, more than 6 million higher education students were enrolled in some type of distance education courses in the year 2017. As the demand for hybrid courses increases, senior leaders are focusing on the quality of hybrid delivery. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as Hispanic Serving Institution, has developed and implemented Professional Development called Hybrid Academy that provides faculty with the knowledge, skills, and exposure to resources necessary to design, develop, and facilitate hybrid instruction. The professional development goes over national standardized best practices, current research, and instructional design principles. The Hybrid Academy Professional Development was created completely in UTRGV official learning management system, Blackboard. It consists of 7 Modules that are all required components of the Hybrid Academy. Each module contains lessons and assessments created in SoftChalk Lesson Builder, Faculty Videos for Micro-Lectures, Discussion Forums and Reflective online Blogs. Also, weekly live sessions are conducted using Blackboard Collaborate and Zoom web conferencing.