I am hybridizing my HR Management course, which is required of seniors who are 1) Management majors in Business, 2) Construction Engineering Management majors in Engineering, and 3) Health Management majors in CPHHS. In addition, as you can see, it is a slash course, so a few MBA students take it as well.
The purpose of this course is to give students an overview of the role of HR in organizations, which includes recruiting, selection, training, EEO regulations, safety, collective bargaining, and so forth. As such, it is a concept-heavy course, but application of these concepts is critical. Learn about interviews – then conduct interviews. Learn about performance appraisals – then conduct performance appraisals. You get the idea, and why a 50-50 hybrid should be a good vehicle for effective delivery of this content.
I currently lecture quite a bit, but I do not use powerpoint or textbook. I have created notes outlines, and the students take notes on these as I lecture. They read a few relevant articles from the business press before each class, and these are weaved into the lecture and used as discussion points.
In this first hybrid effort, I am going to follow Cub’s “keep it simple starting” advice. I plan to turn my lectures into shorter, bite sized podcasts (trimming some material as I do to avoid created a class and a half). The notes outlines will be edited to match the podcasts, and those will be delivered online. In class, there will be a weekly big quiz/small exam to test for comprehension of the online material, then a short recap/discussion of that material, and then a hands-on exercise. The quiz/exam piece is what I’ve had the most trouble adapting to this format.
In addition, one of the main components of this course always has been an online simulation that puts students teams in the role of HR manager for a medium-sized firm, and the teams compete with one another throughout the term. This portion of the course will not change.
I’ll stop there for now. Any feedback or questions are welcome!
~Anthony
Anthony, I would like to hear more about your technique of publishing a notes outline and having students fill in around that… do you have samples you can post?
Specifically, how detailed are the outlines? (I usually start with one myself and am never quite certain what all we’ll cover from term-to-term.) Do students use these note outlines for exams? (If so, what do the exams look like… certainly not multiple-choice!) What kind of metrics do you have that this approach is useful? (I may be reaching here… I’m always looking for ways to measure effectiveness in the classroom.)
The notes outlines are quite detailed – they take notes on top of those notes to make the notes make sense for them. My exams are mainly MC. The notes serve as their textbook. The only metric I have is student feedback, and the feedback of other profs who have adopted my materials for their delivery of this class (Jay Hardy, Michele Swift, Mike Cieri). I am happy to share samples. Where would be the best place to do that? On the canvas site? I don’t see a place to do that here…
Anthony, yes, you’re welcome to share them in our Canvas general discussion.