The Effectiveness of the Hybrid Teaching Method in Introductory Biology at a PUI

Abstract

Hybrid courses combine online education (internet resources including tutorials, videos, and activities) and traditional lecture‐style classes (direct teacher student interaction) into a single course. We are studying the effectiveness of the hybrid method at a small liberal arts college with class sizes of < 24 students. We compare the hybrid and traditional methods with the same set of students, by alternating between styles weekly. Hybrid weeks include online work (quizzes on text book readings and reinforcement activities) in addition to lecture and laboratory. We applied this approach to a broadly focused non‐majors biology course geared toward education majors (Bio101) and an introductory biology course for majors that covers topics in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology (Bio201). Retention of information was measured as student improvement between a pretest and midterms or final exam, comparing retention of information by topic and by Blooms Taxonomy. In Bio101 students showed a significant difference in their ability to answer questions that required them to analyze information presented in hybrid weeks over that of non‐hybrid weeks. Preliminary results from Bio201 show no significant difference in improvement between teaching styles based on content; however, we have observed a significant improvement in analyzing and applying questions from hybrid weeks over non‐hybrid weeks.