COVID-19 ushered in a new era of online teaching, and as many colleges and universities continue to use these mixed-modality models, professors must find “a unified hybrid teaching identity,” explained Victor Azuaje, professor of Hispanic Studies at Mount Saint Mary College.
During his recent presentation “Hybrid Teaching is Not a Limbo nor a Multiverse: Engaging Students by Building a Hybrid Teaching Identity,” Azuaje noted that for some professors, the influx of online and hybrid teaching modalities was “a no-man’s-land equipped with 14-inch monitors and built-in microphones.” For others it was a multiverse, two or three separate instructional worlds linked by rotations in the schedule and increased emails from students.
With this in mind, Azuaje challenged educators to “find an alternative to the unproductive limbo or multiverse metaphors” associated with mixed modality instruction.
Years before the pandemic, educational researchers noted that online and a face-to-face instruction were different creatures. In the classroom, an instructor can use their wit and charm to captivate their live audience. However, as he discovered the hard way, “There are two facts about online teaching: You can’t rely on your charisma and humor rarely works,” Azuaje said.
If one cannot use traditional techniques, hybrid educators must create a new teaching persona that works across both the online and the in-person modalities. With consistent messages between modalities, educators can build a unified persona.
But keep in mind, Azuaje said, “A teaching persona will rise or fall depending on the quality of communication.”
Thus, hybrid instructors should work on creating a new teaching attitude based on dialogue, student engagement, and trust. It won’t happen overnight, but doing so will increase the hybrid professors’ success and their class’s value to the students, Azuaje said.
The talk was part of the Investigating Research on Campus (iROC) series. The goal of iROC is to provide a forum for Mount faculty, staff, and students to showcase their research endeavors with the college and local communities. Presentations include research proposals, initial data collection, and completed research projects.
Mount Saint Mary College, ranked a Top-Tier University by U.S. News & World Report, offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs for careers in healthcare, business, education, social services, communications, media, and the liberal arts.