What is hybrid learning?

One of the best definitions of hybrid learning is as follows: The teacher presents the lesson to students both face-to-face and online at the same time. As such, it is part of blended learning, but a specific example of how EdTech is used in the classroom. However, there are a surprising number of competing definitions, even from very reputable sources. Ultimately, it's about finding a workable definition that makes teaching and learning more flexible in the future.

You can continue reading to understand the role of blended education and blended education model in the future of education.

What exactly is hybrid learning? As a new term in education, it should come as no surprise that hybrid learning lacks a clear definition. This term is being discussed a lot around, so it's pretty clear; In the changing field of education, this concept is of great importance for teachers and students. However, there are still many unanswered questions.

Is hybrid learning blended learning? If yes, why do we use different terms for the two? If not, what makes them different? And how many competing definitions for hybrid learning are there? This concept is still so new that there is little consensus, even among experts.

However, after much research and thought, we will clarify a viable definition for hybrid learning and how it differs from blended learning.

What is Blended Learning?
Blended learning is the combination of traditional analog education with modern digital technologies. In its broadest sense, blended learning is the integration of auxiliary hardware and software such as computer labs, interactive whiteboards and educational software into the learning process. However, mostly blended learning is used to refer to the more recent practice of incorporating self-study online to supplement classroom lectures.

Although hybrid learning is often seen as synonymous with blended learning, this is hardly the case.

What is Hybrid Learning?
Hybrid learning is the name given to the practice of teaching both face-to-face and online at the same time. It is a type of blended learning that focuses on combining the physical classroom and virtual learning spaces closer together into a more complete education. In other words, hybrid learning is a form of synchronized learning that takes place both physically and remotely at the same time.

However, the precise definition of hybrid learning still varies by source.

Other Definitions of Hybrid Learning
Since hybrid learning is a relatively new term, "What is hybrid learning?" There is little consensus when asked, so it can be very confusing to determine what individuals or institutions mean by the term.

Therefore, although we have defined what hybrid learning is in our article, we wanted to show here a few other definitions commonly used by reputable sources.

Face to face and Online
A common phrase that emerges is that blended learning “overlaps” with blended learning. This means that even though they are two separate concepts, they are still different methodologies. The main difference between the two then is that hybrid learning focuses on both face-to-face and online learning, usually does not prefer one or the other.

Pedagogy
Another way to define hybrid learning—especially with regard to blended learning—is that hybrid learning is a pedagogy or teaching strategy rather than a set of processes or procedures. Therefore, hybrid learning represents an ideology that provides the basis for a wide variety of teaching strategies under the umbrella of blended learning.

While Blended Learning defines a practice or process, Hybrid Learning is a methodological approach that helps define a number of different practices and processes. While Blended Learning is tactical, Hybrid Learning is strategic.

Variation
Some sources see hybrid learning as a point in the spectrum of technological advances that can be adopted. The range of development that this definition follows usually follows these main points:

• Only face-to-face lessons based on traditional teaching methods. These methods may include some technologies, but they will primarily be with devices mounted in a physical classroom.
• Blended learning is a model that uses online learning to support classroom teaching, but still primarily relies on teachers and students being physically in the classroom for most of the teaching time.
• Hybrid learning, on the other hand, describes an educational model in which students (according to this interpretation) spend half their time learning online and the remaining half learning in the physical classroom.
• Online only refers to a course that is completely online.

Hybrid Learning as a Synonym
Even more confusing, many respected organizations, from the Online Learning Consortium to the United States Department of Education, treat blended learning and hybrid learning as the same thing.

How Is Hybrid Learning Different From Blended Learning?
With all the confusion about the definition of hybrid learning and its relationship to blended learning, it is important to identify how they differ. And while some experts consider them synonymous or otherwise equivalent, our understanding is a matter of scope.

Blended learning encompasses all education that combines digital technologies, especially web-based learning tools. Hybrid learning specifically refers to synchronized lessons taught simultaneously live and remotely.

This means that hybrid learning is part of blended learning as a comprehensive subject that includes methodologies such as flipped classrooms and scale-up. In other words, all hybrid learning is blended learning, but not all blended learning is hybrid learning.

Why Is Hybrid Learning So Important?
Hybrid learning, as we mentioned earlier – simultaneous learning both live and online – will be part of the educational landscape of the future. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have realized that a certain amount of flexibility is needed both now and in the future.

While face-to-face teaching will continue to be an important part of education for the foreseeable future, we clearly see the need to create multiple channels to respond not only to extreme conditions such as a global catastrophe, but also to the disruptions that effective education can suffer from in everyday life. Hybrid teaching not only makes learning more accessible to people with diverse abilities, it also allows educators to access remote areas, helps students stay connected during extended absences, and introduces educators and students alike to the latest communication technologies.

Final Thoughts
Hybrid learning, along with EdTech, will become part of a holistic education approach as other most effective educational practices continue to grow and evolve. Although hybrid learning – and broader blended learning – have been referred to as emergency measures in the past and in the context of the epidemic, they are likely to become pillars of teaching and learning in the years to come.

However, given how recently hybrid learning has hit the scene, it's understandably still difficult to pinpoint exactly what this means.