Blending in the Bronx: The Dimensions of Hyrbrid Course Development at Bronx Community College

"To support the growth of its blended courses, Bronx Community College (BCC), a unit of the City University of New York (CUNY), participated in a CUNY-sponsored initiative to increase blended learning options for students. The initiative allowed BCC to expand its existing faculty development program. This paper describes major aspects of the program, including strategies for faculty recruitment, face-to-face and online workshop activities, faculty peer mentoring, recruitment and utilization of students as Instructional Technology Tutors, and the documentation created in order to evaluate program activities" (p. 87). (Abstractor: Author)

“BCC has shown a steady increase to 50 hybrid courses and12% of full-time faculty teaching distance-learning courses in the Spring 2011 semester. The six-month program relies heavily on peer mentoring and student ITTs [Instructional Technology Tutors] to guide faculty in the development or redevelopment of a deliverable hybrid course. In particular, peer mentoring leads to a positive experience for faculty participants, the flexibility to tailor training for each participant, and the addition of the course review checkpoint in November prior to the scheduling of classes.... Performance data among all Fall 2009 BCC students enrolled in hybrid or asynchronous classes show that among students in good academic standing (GPA>=2.0), those at a high-developmental English level, taking a mix of distance and traditional classes, had an overall pass rate of 69%, compared with 84% for students at the same level taking only face-to-face classes. For students at the credit-bearing English course level, the same comparison yielded pass rates of 78% (distance and face-to face) and 86% (face-to-face only).... [O]nline students ... need help in order to pass and complete their coursework. However successful [the] efforts to develop faculty capacities to teach online, [researchers] can conclude that ... progress needs now to be matched by an equal commitment to building student capacities to learn online” (p. 93). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Wach, Howard; Broughton, Laura; Powers, Stephen
• Organizational Author(s): Bronx Community College
• Funding Source: Bronx Community College
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies