This year, the Faculty of Education is piloting a hybrid approach in teaching and learning for UBC’s teacher education programs in Vancouver and Nelson (WKTEP). In the 2024/25 BEd programs, teacher candidates will be attending four online classes in Winter Term 1—Wednesdays for elementary & middle years and Fridays for secondary. The pilot is modeled on the experience of the Faculty’s Rural and Remote Education Program where 40% of coursework is online.
Since 2020, more attention has been devoted towards learning and teaching spaces, with many researchers claiming that flexible spaces better meet the needs of a diverse student population (Carhill-Poza & Chen, 2020; Wong, 2021, 2022). These transformative spaces are also conceptualized as postdigital learning spaces, aiming to open up institutional spaces to form universities beyond traditional dichotomies. This means that in postdigital learning and teaching, physical environments merge with digital environments where everyday actions, interactions and experiences of teaching and learning are integrated into two modalities. Overall, blended learning combines traditional and online learning models to complement the learning experience.
As part of our relearning about digital spaces, Assistant Professor of Teaching Dr. Melanie Wong (LLED) and graduate students recently gave a presentation titled “Put the ‘Hybrid’ Into Learning: Building our Teacher Candidates’ Digital Competencies”. UBC Master of Education students, Michelle Blown, Jennifer Low, and David Track, all UBC BEd alum, talked about their experiences as teacher candidates and teachers incorporating and adapting to technology-enhanced teaching and learning in their classrooms.
This direction towards hybrid delivery has the potential to support a diversification of students particularly from historically underrepresented communities, inspire renewed teaching and learning paradigms, and emphasizing the reputation of the Faculty of Education in this province.