Final Blog Post: Hybrid Courses and Reflection

      When I searched "hybrid/blended courses" the first thing that caught my eye was a link for the University of Texas. When I went into the link it gave an overview of what a hybrid course is and some advantages of it. While it was similar to our LIS course design, these courses replaced face-to-face learning with online learning. Our LIS course has all of the necessary lecture and discussion components, but has the added the online component, instead of replacing face-to-face learning.

      I felt that the online portions for the most part connected with the in-person portions. Sometimes it seemed like the online portions were just another assignment that we never really talked about. Other times it connected very well to our articles and discussion topics. I felt that I learned a lot about people from their in-class responses because I heard every one of them. With the blog posts, I didn't read everyone's post. I do feel that with the blog people were able to better express themselves, especially those who didn't like to speak up in class a lot. I do feel more comfortable with online resources, and I think this is important in today's society because technology is growing at such a rapid pace. I think more UW courses will begin to integrate the online component into their courses, and I think there are pros and cons to this. It would open students up to online capabilities, but also might create unneeded work. If instructors can integrate the online component into their class and make it relevant, then I think it would be a good idea. 

      I think most of the readings/articles were relevant to the class, however some were pretty long-winded and could've been condensed. The articles were very time consuming so shorter ones that have the same point would suffice. I don't really think that online course components would be that different in a course that wasn't about the online world of information. There are all kinds of ways to use the internet in different types of courses. It was probably a little easier, however, to integrate the online component into a class like LIS 201. Overall, I enjoyed this class, and despite how much time it took, I think there was a lot of valuable information taught. I learned a lot about technology, and this class changed my perspective on it a little.