What is hybrid teaching?

Hybrid teaching does not assume either a fundamentally on-campus or fundamentally online model but is designed for easy student transition between the two. Hybrid teaching will consist of a mixture of digital and on-campus activities, where students may be able to attend on-campus sessions, digital sessions in the same time zone, or digital sessions in a different time zone.

The University of Edinburgh has years of experience with learning technology and we have a range of knowledgeable people and resources to help guide you through all of this. Our learning technology teams in schools and in Information Services Group (ISG), alongside our academic developers in the Institute of Academic Development (IAD), provide the services you need. These pages provide guidance and advice on how to continue teaching when access to campus is prohibited or restricted. 

It is important to remember that preparing courses to be taught digitally or in a blended mode for a period of campus closure or restriction is different from designing a fully online course. Although many of the tools and teaching techniques will be the same, you may not have time for a full course redesign, and a move to fully digital teaching may not be what your students need or expect. You can, however, shift your scheduled teaching to a digital or hybrid mode using some of our everyday tools while maintaining the quality of your teaching 

We offer a range of tools, support, and guidance to help you. What we have learned from designing online courses should help inform your teaching should you need to move online for a period of time. 

By following some basic guiding principles, we are confident that it is possible to maintain teaching continuity using a core set of tools which are provided by the University: Learn, Collaborate, and our Media Hopper services.  We provide extensive training and guidance for using these tools. 

All you need is your computer, internet, camera (optional) and microphone. You can do most of this remotely if you need to work away from your office. 

Other sources of support

The Institute for Academic Development (IAD) has a range of existing courses, workshops, consultancy and online resources relevant to hybrid teaching, these are now being offered online. There are also new events, a new course, and new resources, provided specifically to support hybrid teaching.

Support for hybrid teaching

The Edinburgh Hybrid Teaching Exchange  has been created to support sharing of work in progress and ideas, in addition to examples of practice, resources and scholarship.  It has been developed using the University academic blogging service with access restricted to a University audience.  

The Edinburgh Hybrid Teaching Exchange