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Connecting Places:

The Hybrid Practices of

Graduate Students

Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Fellows

Computers and Writing 2023

Introduction: Naomi:

Graduate students exist in a sort of hybrid place: not quite students and not quite instructors. This liminal positioning provides graduate student members of the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative (DRC) with a unique perspective on hybridity. The DRC is a shared space for inquiry that serves the computers and writing community through an annual graduate student fellowship, sharing resources for instructors, and hosting a variety of materials such as podcasts, books, and blog posts on digital rhetoric.

In this round of lightning talks, the Sweetland DRC Fellows will discuss how hybrid environments have affected them as students and instructors. After the lightning talks, audience members will better understand how equitable practices are constructed and maintained in the overlapping hybrid spaces that graduate students inhabit. Speakers will first discuss navigating hybrid teaching and then discuss how they use hybrid practices in their research. After the lightning talks DRC members both online and in person will take questions from the audience and will facilitate a discussion on the intersections between these hybrid practices.

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*Note: Click on flash talks and q&a slides to access the videos

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Overview

Introduction: Naomi Silver

Flash Talk 1: Jiaxin Zhang (Texas Tech University)

Flash Talk 2: Alyse Campbell (University of Michigan)

Flash Talk 3: Nitya Pandey (Florida State University)

Flash Talk 4: Alexandra Krasova (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

Flash Talk 5: Christoffer Turpin, (Ohio State University)

Q&A: Sarah Akomoh, Naomi Silver and Simone Sessolo (University of Michigan)

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Flash Talk 1:

Fostering Inclusive Classes and Meaningful Engagement in Hybrid Classrooms

By: Jiaxin Zhang

Texas Tech University

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Fostering Inclusive Classes and Meaningful Engagement in the Hybrid Classroom

Meaningful learning exp: teacher-student, student-student, student-material (Jaggers & Xu, 2016)

Building inclusive and meaningful learning experience through teamwork

Fostering teamwork or in-class discussion in the hybrid environment

Socialization (build a cohort model and support each other outside the classroom)
Sense of belonging - welcomed and encouraged

Providing clear and consistent instructions for both online and onsite students

Clear Meaningful discussion - well structured and clear expectation
Assign mixed group

Employing technology as a tool to create humanized learning experience (prioritize human)

Instructor: Employing appropriate technologies and tools

Real-time file and document sharing, like Google Docs or Microsoft OneDrive, Miro

Students: Building and participating online community

material

instructor

onsite student

online student

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Flash Talk 2:

A Model of Hybridity in First-Year Composition

By: Alyse Campbell

University of Michigan

My name is Alyse Campbell and I am a PhD student in the joint program in English and Education at the University of Michigan. For this flash talk, I will be presenting A model of Hybridity in First Year composition, which is based on my experience teaching in a first-year composition course in the English Department Writing Program. In this course this course, there were 18 students — most of them were either freshman or sophomores who were taking it their first year composition requirement.

To give some background on this topic, during the winter semester of 2022, there were several of my students that were impacted by Covid-19 among other illnesses. Every week, several students called out sick. So how do you adjust as an instructor? In this presentation, I hope to address some of the key challenges and takeaways from teaching a blended, hybrid FYW course.

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Variations of First Year Composition Classrooms

Blended: Blended refers to courses where a significant portion of in-person class is replaced with online activities (Hillard and Stewart 2019).

Hybrid: Variations include courses who alternate classes online and in-person or synchronous/asynchronous formats within the class.

Student’s perception of teaching practices:

In hybrid and in-person first year writing (FYW) courses, students perceive student-instructor relationships, timely feedback, and instruction as similar; however, students’ may not perceive their instructor facilitating instructor-student-student relationships as much (Webb et. al 2023)

For this course, I ended up doing both a blended and hybrid format: meaning, I would teach part of my class over zoom while simultaneously still teaching students who attended in person. At different points of the course, it fluctuated to most of the students being in person, while a couple were on zoom, while other times, it was about 50/50. Additionally, since about half of the activities in the course were replaced in a online activities completed both in person and over zoom, I would consider this course a blended hybrid format.

In first year writing, several programs have introduced a combination of blended or hybrid courses; however, these modalities can often shift students’ perceptions of interactions with their instructor and peers. For instance, in a recent study that surveyed 669 students at four universities in online and hybrid sections of FYW, it was found that students perceive student-instructor relationships, timely feedback, and instruction as similar to in-person students; however, students’ may not perceive student-student relationships as as close as instructor to their peers in synchronous classrooms (Webb et. al 2023)

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Setting up a Hybrid First-Year Writing Classroom

Exigence:

Several students were missing class because of illness; additionally, university and departmental policies allowed classes to be listed as “hybrid” or be online.
Initially began as a means to accommodate students who were unable to attend in person for multiple sessions.
Shifting university policies around hybrid courses

Models of Participation/Pedagogical Practices:

Co-writing documents
Small group discussion (having students go into breakout rooms on Zoom)
Ask for feedback more regularly
Remind students of norms for hybrid instruction
Have in-person students support their peers on zoom through discussion facilitation

The exigence of this switch to a hybrid format posed several questions including: how will the class still be engaging for students who attend in person and online? How do I foster connections between students who are participating in different formats? How do I shift pedagogical practices so that they were equitable for all students? These questions were at the forefront of the course when I began teaching in this blended, hybrid format.

Over the course of the semester, I tested several models of participation for students to engage with the class. Some of these models included having students co-write on Google Documents synchronously so that their peers who were remote could still engage in live time. Additionally, I had students facilitate small-group discussions with their peers on zoom by logging onto the zoom room as well and putting them into breakout rooms. Sometimes, students would engage with their peers in the classroom and on zoom separately, and sometimes, they would engage together. This led to me focusing more on small group discussion, co-writing documents, and giving students more feedback through regular, individual check-ins and through Canvas.

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Key Takeaways and Challenges

Challenges:

Variability of the class structure meant specific activities such as peer review were tricky to do without pre-planned dates
Accessibility in being able to hear everyone’s voices in discussion with technology
Attendance fluctuated more throughout the semester

Key Takeaways:

Hybrid courses require advanced planning, consideration of curriculum, students’ needs and meaningful interaction (Tucker King et. al 2018)
Consider the technical accessibility of the space: are there enough microphones, is everyone clearly able to see and hear the material?
Plan specific procedures for different activities and how students will engage with their peers (in discussion, shared documents, on video, etc.)

Additionally, keeping this flexible format had its challenges as well: including how to make sure the mics and computers were set up so that everyone could hear one another. There was also the challenge of students engaging with their peers who were not in person regularly: this is why the co-writing and the hybrid discussion was so crucial. Attendance fluctuated more throughout the semester than in a regular, synchronous class environment and I needed to plan activities such as peer review for days where we planned to meet completely in person or online.

This meant that I needed to adjust frequently. I asked students for feedback through a survey every couple of weeks and at the mid-way point, the majority of them said that they preferred the hybrid format. While the majority of them agreed with the format, there were some students who did not enjoy it as much and would have benefitted from a different class modality.

Overall, some major takeaways from this course included considering the mode of instruction impacts the way students engaged with the material and developed peer-to-peer relationships. Some ways in which students developed deeper relationships with their peers may include scheduling specific in-person or online days in advance and facilitating co-writing spaces such as documents or breakout rooms If instructors were to implement a hybrid format in their future courses, a couple steps that could be taken are to plan specific procedures for activities such as peer review, discussion, and co-writing. Additionally, the technical accessibility of the space needs to be tested, including how video recording, microphones, and lectures will be set up in the physical space.

In the future, FYW instructors may decide to incorporate elements of blended, hybrid, and synchronous/asynchronous learning into their courses; however, they should consider how these elements fit into the overall design and implementation of the course from the beginning.

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References + Contact

Hilliard, Lyra P., Stewart, Mary K. Time well spent: Creating a community of inquiry in blended first-year writing courses, The Internet and Higher Education, Volume 41, 2019, Pages 11-24, ISSN 1096-7516, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.11.002.

Stillman-Webb, Natalie., Hilliard, Lyra., Stewart, Mary K., Jennifer M. Cunningham, Facilitating student discourse: Online and hybrid writing students’ perceptions of teaching presence, Computers and Composition, Volume 67, 2023, 102761, ISSN 8755-4615, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.c o mpcom.2023.102761.

Tucker King, Carie S., Keeth, Sara , and Ryan, Christopher J.Collaborative Curriculum Design and Assessment: Piloting a Hybrid First-Year Writing Course, Journal of Interactive Online Learning, Volume 16, No. 1, 2018, ISSN: 1541-4914, https://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/16.1.3.pdf

Contact: alysec@umich.edu

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Flash Talk 3:

Composition Classrooms as “Hybrid Spaces”: Connecting the physical, the digital, and the social

By: Nitya Pandey

Florida State University

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What is a “Hybrid Space”?

“A hybrid space is a conceptual space created by the merging of borders between physical and digital spaces, because of the use of mobile technologies as social devices. Nevertheless, a hybrid space is not constructed by technology. It is built by the connection of mobility and communication and materialized by social networks developed simultaneously in physical and digital spaces” (de Souza e Silva 265) .

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The Assignment

Please pick an issue from the real world that you passionately care about and create a social media campaign with an aim to raise awareness and advocate for the issue. Also, provide a rationale behind choosing that specific topic.

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Assignment Submissions at a Glance

Plastic pollution and its effects on the marine animals of the earth’s oceans

Legislation that creates tax incentives in order to make Florida a more competitive state in the Film Industry, bringing billions of dollars of revenue

The issue of insulin prices and how lower-class individuals have a hard time affording insulin because of the skyrocketing cost

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in the United States

“Non-traditional” College Students: Students who take longer time to finish their degrees

Women’s participation in Jazz music

Breast cancer in males

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Results

Hybridity is an integral part of a composition classroom that utilizes multimedia to build projects
Employing multiple modes helps students connect the physical with the digital
The physical or the “real world” issues that the students cared about always connected with their personal, professional, academic, and social spheres
Most students chose Instagram as their social media platform
Most students chose to create posters using Canva

Composition classrooms are hybrid spaces since they bring the social, the physical, and the digital together.
By employing multiple modes, we are putting the social and the physical in conversation with the digital in ways that are most vibrant and powerful.
Students show that they care about topics that are connected to them in their personal, professional, academic, or social spheres. They show that they are capable of discussing real world issues with larger political, economic, and cultural implications via digital, multimodal methods and channels.
While choosing social media platforms for the project, Instagram was a clear favorite due to its emphasis on visuals in combination with alphabetic text.
Canva was the most frequently utilized tool for artifact creation since it provides templates for Instagram posts as well as digital posters.

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Conclusion

Composition classrooms provide ample opportunities for students to employ multimodal digital methods and virtual platforms to voice their thoughts, concerns, and stances on different real world issues they care about, related to society, politics, culture, and economy, thus establishing the classrooms as hybrid spaces.

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Work Cited

De Souza e Silva, Adriana. “From cyber to hybrid: Mobile technologies as interfaces of hybrid spaces.” Space and culture, vol. 9, no. 3, 2006, pp. 261-278.

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Flash Talk 4:

Digital Storytelling as a Hybrid Tool in Multilingual Classrooms

By: Alexandra Krasova

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

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Digital storytelling is a combination of narrative stories with a variety of digital multimedia, such as images, audio, and video (Robin, 2006).

First Introduced �in 1994 at the Center for Digital Storytelling in California (Lambert)

Promotes Critical Thinking

writers implement their experiences and practices into digital stories (Bull & Kajder, 2004)

Supports Creative Process�which engages students’ imagination (Ohler, 2008)

Mixes Linguistic Modes

multilingual contexts and diverse intercommunication (Schreiber, 2015)

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Digital Storytelling in Multilingual Classrooms

Constructs digital identity

through their personal experiences

Enhances literacy practices

by utilizing new digital tools

Highlights students' voices�ensuring personalized learning

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Digital Storytelling as a Hybrid Classroom Tool

Collaboration

Ensures teamwork between the participants in the classroom and online

Game design

Promotes creativity and engagement

Bridging traditional and online classrooms

Provides opportunity to engage in different activities inside and outside the classroom

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Digital Storytelling Examples

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Flash Talk 5:

“Cloud Computing in the Classroom”

By: Chris Turpin

Ohio State University

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Q&A