22. Using Blackboard for Hybrid Course Offerings

Hybrid Structures: Faculty use and Perception of Web-based courseware as a supplement to face-to-face Instruction
Robert Woods, Jason D. Baker , Dave Hopper
2004
The Internet and Higher Education, 7 (281-297)

This article addresses an interesting question around instructors using Blackboard (BB) to augment their face-to-face (F2F) course deliveries in post-secondary settings.

The ultimate conclusion is that instructors do not seem to fully take advantage of the tools in BB to extend, expand and open the doors of their traditional classrooms through the online LMS. In fact, the key findings indicate that these tools are used for administrating the course, organizing and archiving content and managing grades. It also seems that the more experience instructors had with the tool the more open they were to use it as addition to their F2F deliveries.

Research indicates that using BB in F2F hybrid deliveries could in fact yield a more productive learning environment, while this research seems to indicate they actually do not take full advantage of the tools and possibilities. Particularly interesting is the opportunity to create and enhance community through the LMS that is a key factor in fully online line learning environments, seems to be a neglected advantage.

The interactivity potential of the use of the LMS seems to be lost when combined in hybrid deliveries.