Participatory Culture in a Hybrid Learning Environment
Problem Statement
The rush to online learning discounts student and faculty voices in how to allow for meaningful teaching and learning experiences online. While much research and publicity has focused on how online learning can assist universities and students in saving costs and open doors to public university education to even the most remote corners of the world, there are questions that are not being addressed. Students' experiences in online and hybrid learning are not included in the relevant literature, nor their opinions on how well the online environments benefit their learning experience. Additionally, there is little discussion of how administrators will assist faculty in shifting their current brick-and-mortar curriculum to an online environment; and in doing so, how faculty will bridge the gap between the content learned online to the students' need to interact with their peers, and apply what they are learning to their own interests and career paths.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to highlight students' and one faculty member's perspectives of a hybrid graduate level Education course. This study attempts to explore what constitutes meaningful hybrid learning experiences through students' collaboration with their peers online, how their online activities are bridged with the face-to-face classroom, and how these learning experiences allow students to connect their learning experiences to their personal and professional growth as educators. This study was inspired by my own experiences as a graduate student in Education enrolled in hybrid courses and my own underlying dissatisfaction with my current role as an online course developer and educator.
What is a Participatory Culture?
Research Questions
1. How, if at all, is a participatory culture developed and maintained in the hybrid course?
a. What roles and responsibilities do students and the faculty member take on within the development and maintenance of the participatory, hybrid course?
2. What are students' experiences in creating a learning community in the hybrid course?
3. What kinds of tensions or congruences persist between the faculty member’s objectives for the course and the students’ needs and desires within the hybrid course
a. How does the faculty member negotiate meeting the objectives of the course with student needs and desires in the hybrid course?
a. What roles and responsibilities do students and the faculty member take on within the development and maintenance of the participatory, hybrid course?
2. What are students' experiences in creating a learning community in the hybrid course?
3. What kinds of tensions or congruences persist between the faculty member’s objectives for the course and the students’ needs and desires within the hybrid course
a. How does the faculty member negotiate meeting the objectives of the course with student needs and desires in the hybrid course?