Avoiding common pitfalls in general human nutrition hybrid course

The face-to-face version of my General Human Nutrition course (NUTR 225) currently includes lectures (PowerPoint), exams, and informal discussions during class meeting times, and quizzes and a project submitted via Canvas. The online version of the course includes all of the same components. The primary difference between the two courses is the online version requires students to participate in the discussion forum.

The first pitfall that I will aim to avoid in developing the hybrid version of this course is pitfall #1: upload your course materials, then call it a day. Although the discussion topics in my online course require students to consider and discuss content delivered via short articles and/or videos, the bulk of the online course is very similar in content and format to what is offered in the face-to-face version of the course. For the hybrid course, I want to better utilize Canvas and other web resources to make the online portion of the course more engaging and interactive. For example, I plan to create mini lectures including audio/video, and design quizzes that address students’ individual learning challenges.

The second pitfall that I will focus on in developing this hybrid course is pitfall #5: ignore the ways students learn from each other. It’s not that I have ever “ignored” this fact, it’s that I want to be more intentional in building this concept into my hybrid course. In my face-to-face course, we often have small group discussions or think-pair-share activities during class. As mentioned above, the online course utilizes the discussion forum as a method for students to exchange ideas and learn from one another. One way that I intend to build the capacity for peer-to-peer learning in the hybrid course is to utilize the Canvas peer review tool for the course project. Following the online peer review, I will allow time for peers to discuss face-to-face during our in-class meeting time.