“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. ”
-Michael E. Porter

Often we find that there is not a firm understanding of the different NCSC Distance formats, so to help begin forming your vision of what exactly you are designing, here is a quick primer and the trade-offs of the three we have found in practice:

1. On-Campus Hybrid -- Section 90x
*Required Weekly Live Meeting face to face ON-CAMPUS*
As soon as you replace/reduce required live class meetings times in favor of online activities/assignments, you then have a hybrid course.

ADVANTAGES:

"Cushion" of regular in person contact with students to get the "feel" of where everybody is at with material.
Students and you can work through any questions/issues in person before/after class.
Gentler transition from face to face to distance teaching.

CHALLENGES:

Keeping up the "Synchronous Compact" (Finkelstein) of making the precious live class time meaningful & actually moving the needle on student learning and students coming prepared to work.
["Not sure point of why we meet each week as instructor just reads a Powerpoint to us that they could have posted online!?"]
Integration of the live class and online class elements so design of course makes a coherent whole with each element building/feeding/supporting the other.

2. Online Hybrid -- Section 91x
*Required Weekly Live Meeting ONLINE in Zoom virtual classroom*

ADVANTAGES:

Best of both worlds middle ground with much flexibility but still live contact and access to faculty & students.
Students and you get flexibility in PLACE of learning-- nobody has to drive to campus.
Zoom functionality allows you to reproduce almost ANY in person class activity -- [whiteboard, powerpoint, websites, breakout rooms for small group work, distribute files, polling etc.].
"Cushion" of regular live contact with students to get the "feel" of where everybody is at with material.
One-click 'record' button to create full archive of the class session for playback on demand/review.

CHALLENGES:

Same as On-Campus Hybrid
Additional challenge of technology "overhead" of Zoom for you and students with many additional moving parts for greater number of potential points of failure.
Must master the Zoom interface to run the live class session.

3. Fully Online -- Section 92x
*No Required Live Meetings - All Online*

ADVANTAGES:

Maximum flexibility for students and you in the time and place of learning & teaching.
To larger extent, learning is most "visible" as far as prompts, artifacts, tracking data etc.

CHALLENGES:

According to Flashlight surveys, -- Far & Away the LEAST preferred learning format for NCSC students (Avg of only 10.4% indicating as MOST preferred learned format - with avg 49.8% indicating it is their LEAST preferred format)
Hardest format to establish and maintain student motivation and engagement in.
Most challenging for you and students to establish a virtual "presence" and or build highly functioning learning community in.
Most demanding format of students & faculty time management & organization.
Getting all requirements and activities clearly laid out and understandable in student friendly language to majority of students.
Ensuring ADA Accessibility of ALL materials, activities etc.