CAHSS Faculty Books and Book Chapters
Course Delivery: Online, Hybrid, Service and Experiential Learning Possibilities
This edited volume by Bill Warters, David J. Smith, Jennifer Batton, and Julie Shedd is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license.
Description
The leading barometers of online learning such as the Online Report Card (available at https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/read/online-report-card-tracking-online-education-united-states-2015/) indicate that over one in four higher education students now take distance courses and the increase in online enrollments is outpacing overall higher education enrollments. Busy life schedules, tight budgets, established career paths, advances in technology and the desire to reach ever wider, more diverse student bodies are some of the factors driving the growth. Students have differing needs and preferences and some disciplines’ training requirements cannot be met through online learning. In our Conflict Resolution Studies Department at Nova Southeastern University, we have been offering the whole range of course delivery modes; online, residential and hybridsdriven by the desire to meet student needs in ever wider locations as well as capitalizing on the advances in class delivery modes. Our guiding philosophy of the scholarship of engagement, makes experiential learning and community engagement critical components of our curriculum. For our practice courses we find that hybrid courses give students online flexibility while providing the hands on, face to face interaction practice requires. In this chapter, we share from what we have learnt in three aspects of learning: online, hybrid and experiential studies.