The Merritt Writing Program (MWP) is undergoing a pilot phase to develop and assess the hybrid model (part face-to-face and part online) for teaching writing courses. Taking a hybrid writing course offers students the opportunity to collaborate and write in online formats that are increasingly relevant to professional and academic forums. Teaching a hybrid writing course offers faculty new and exciting opportunities to leverage the online environment to enhance and extend students’ learning experience.
This site serves two primary purposes. First, it aims to provide faculty teaching hybrid courses some helpful resources, including training materials, instructional technology tools, and a resource page.
Second, this site serves to demonstrate how a WordPress blog can function as a “home page” for your hybrid course. As much as possible, we’ve tried to create this site to mimic how a blog can be used in a real hybrid course. For example, on the right column, you’ll find a blogroll, which could be substituted for links to student e-portfolios. The Discussion Forum page features two sub-discussion forums: one for 2010 and one for 2011. Prompts can be posted by either you or your students, and anyone can respond to posts, creating a threaded conversation.
We hope you find this site useful not only for learning about best practices in teaching hybrid courses but also for teaching your students how to engage in the online context. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Anne Zanzucchi (azanzucchi@ucmerced.edu) or Mike Truong (mtruong@ucmerced.edu).
