A glimpse at the complex array of existing models in “hybrid” learning
Hybrid Learning on Forum, Minerva’s elite learning platform
PRODUCT AND SERVICE DESIGN, STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT, WORKSHOP FACILITATION, DISCOVERY INTERVIEWS
Minerva Project built Forum, a proprietary online learning platform, for Minerva University. But Minerva University’s model is unique: all classes are online, with suggested in-person experiences that take place off the platform in students’ free time.
Now, Minerva Project partners with universities outside of Minerva University. We craft new academic programs and support these with Forum as well as other complementary products, all integrated to form one seamless learning experience. Because of these strategic partnerships, the product and academic teams must support and build for experiences that work with other learning models.
After the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we learn, universities saw the potential in technology-assisted learning, but wanted to harness the best of both worlds: online and in-person learning. Enter the new buzzword, “hybrid.”
Framing the problem
Mention “hybrid learning” to a few different people in education and you’ll find that the term means many different things to many different people. Part of the problem was the lack of a cohesive answer to the question, “what is a hybrid learning experience?” I decided a deep dive into the hybrid learning space was necessary for the discovery phase of this dense project.
I set out to see: what are the different definitions of “hybrid”? How are universities running hybrid classes now? What do students and instructors think of the current learning configurations? And how might Minerva Project’s product, Forum, best fit into these various learning models?
Why this project?
With many universities transitioning entire programs to online learning from 2020-2022 (and potentially beyond), we have seen the benefits of technology in the classroom. Automation lessens burden on instructors. Flexibility gives students and instructors more options for their learning experiences. But there’s something intoxicating about human connection—it enriches even the best lesson plan, online or not—and universities still want to tap into this natural human urge with in-person classes.
We at Minerva Project knew that Forum supported the best online classes. But could we scale Forum down to work in an in-person environment, too? Would our lesson plans, catered to the platform and the online environment, still work when run in-person? This is what we wanted to learn.
To narrow the scope of the project, I drafted the problem statement:
How might we leverage Forum and Minerva’s transformational approach to education to create a smooth learning experience whether students are physically inside or outside of the classroom?
I started with simple representations of models I gathered discovery info about from online forums, interviews, and reading
Discovery
My first task for this project was to understand the problem space. I wanted to dig into “hybrid learning,” find out what it meant to others, and some common pain points. It turned out there were several existing hybrid models.
I conducted discovery interviews with both internal Minerva University instructors and external university partners to discuss their experiences with hybrid learning: how did they run hybrid classes? What about these experiences enriched the class, and what detracted from it?
Context and details about various existing hybrid models
Ideation
The ideation phase for this project was intense, as design needed to touch many different parts of the product. In-person classes are a completely new configuration to complement the standard online-only Forum offering.
I first explored: how might we label an in-person class to make it distinct from virtual classes on Forum? After all, for in-person class, students need to show up somewhere specific.
Label exploration for in-person classes, formatted for design critique with the team
Demo of how to open presentation view window, a new feature for in-person classes
User testing the MVP
With a discovery and research-informed MVP built and functionally tested, we were ready to see how our in-person class configuration worked for real students. Design and product recruited a small group of college students (from various institutions and backgrounds) in San Diego, preparing two days of tests with several lesson plans customized to intentionally test out new features.
The instructor’s breakout dashboard, displaying student work from a breakout session (updated real time)
The conclusion
At the conclusion of the project, we built released our MVP in-person classes version of Forum. Users could toggle whether a class session was in-person or virtual, which would configure the Forum classroom automatically to fit the needs of students and instructors. Lesson plans would not need to be modified to fit either modality.
Our partners at University of Miami, Shenandoah University, and Zayed University currently use the in-person classes for their various face-to-face sessions and hybrid learning programs.