Abstract:

Hybrid learning is the main learning mode in university education nowadays. Yet, there is currently limited work that provides insights on synchronous forms of hybrid education. This contribution is a review of completed hybrid learning projects. It discusses ten recent empirical research cases on the topic at stake in the context of university education with a focus on cross-campus teaching and learning.

Cross-campus teaching or multi-campus teaching is a form of hybrid education where the on-site students are distributed in different campuses. Some previous research points out that multicampus teaching as a form of hybrid education poses pedagogical, technical, learning support and administrative challenges in university settings. All ten projects included in this review correspond to previously published academic papers, and they were selected using the maximum variation sampling technique.

That is, the cases included in the review correspond to relevant projects that:
a) are written by authors that come from different countries and continents, and
b) they cover a temporal range of 10 years (i.e. 2011-2021).

Also, the cases were derived from English-language peer-reviewed scientific journal articles or conference papers. The main question revolving the analysis of the cases is: what kind of learning designs were used to implement cross-campus teaching? The cases were analysed by identifying in each case in line with the research question learning design parameters that affected the hybrid learning setting.

The findings of the analysis of the selected papers show that cross-campus teaching involved in some of these cases not only students located in the different campuses while participating in the course in real-time, but also students participating online (e.g. from their homes) via a video conferencing system. Also, the findings indicate that the use of a lecture-based approach could be suitable for cross-campus teaching, provided that it involves an interactive lecture and it is not monologue-based. Finally, that the main intention behind the implementation of hybrid learning in the projects included in this review was to cater for a student experience that shares comparable and high quality between all students independently of their location and to provide more flexibility (e.g. student mobility). These learning designs considerations could seem useful to university tutors and instructional designers that are interested in the topic as well as to researchers that explore technology-enhanced learning in higher education. If implemented effectively, cross-campus teaching is a promising educational method worth pursuing in that can promote equal student experience across campuses, online collaboration between students that are geographically separated, and flexible learning.

Keywords:

Hybrid learning, cross-campus teaching, learning technology, technology enhanced learning, higher education.