Five elements

  • 5 minutes

To prepare for their virtual learning environment instructors can implement specific strategies for each element of hybrid learning.

Illustration of the five elements of hybrid learning.

Learning environment

  • Create a Class Team
  • Select a microphone and webcam to optimize Teams calls
  • Teach students to use closed captions in Teams calls
  • Create your Class Notebook in Teams for sharing content and creating a workspace for students
  • Establish an organizational structure with channels
  • Add important resources as Tabs

Class community

  • Create an introductory video
  • Revise ice-breaker activities for hybrid environments
  • Create a "Get Social" channel for students
  • Encourage students to practice communicating in their virtual classroom
  • Establish cyber safety and digital citizenship guidelines
  • Foster student-to-student interaction to advance learning
  • Survey parents and guardians to learn about students' needs

Lesson design

  • Use backward design to simplify content and focus on enduring understandings
  • Implement universal design for learning guidelines to personalize instruction
  • Plan segmented synchronous lessons
  • Create short asynchronous lessons and upload to Stream
  • Use multi-modal methods of communication to share learning goals, announcements, and instructions
  • Scaffold lessons and assignments

Engagement and interactivity

  • Identify the core experiences of in-person learning and interaction that need to be translated online
  • Use strategies that ensure that all students are active participants
  • Establish methods for evaluating student comprehension during synchronous sessions
  • Examine coursework demands to ensure students have an appropriate workload
  • Pose authentic problems for students to solve
  • Encourage voice, choice, and agency

Assessment and feedback

  • Create formative assessments that allow students to practice concepts
  • Design alternate summative assessments that allow for voice, choice, and agency
  • Provide meaningful and timely feedback with audio feedback, notes in Forms quizzes, and feedback cycles with Assignments in Teams