A University of Houston professor found that students in a “hybrid” version of his course, which involved an online component, got better grades than students who took the course in a more traditional, offline format, according to ScienceDaily.
Brian McFarlin offered two versions of the same class, Kinesiology 3306. In the first, traditional class, he lectured twice a week. In the hybrid version, he gave one weekly lecture, and a second weekly class was administered through announcements, review questions, and quizzes on WebCT (now Blackboard).
Students who took the hybrid class earned, on average, a letter grade higher than students in the traditional class. A report of Mr. McFarlin’s findings, collected over the course of six semesters, was published in Advances in Physiology Education.
More information on Mr. McFarlin’s course results can be found at the university’s Web site.—Catherine Rampell
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