Hybrid teaching is when some students are in a classroom at the university while other students follow the teaching digitally. Such teaching became quite common during the past spring. When we gradually returned to teaching on campus but some restrictions still remained, such as the requirement to stay at home if a relative was ill or tested positive, hybrid teaching became a good compromise to avoid the spread of infection. Now that the restrictions are gone, that need no longer exists, but some students have still requested hybrid teaching. For some of them, the reason is that they want to be able to follow the teaching even if they are ill, others see an opportunity to avoid long and time-consuming trips to the university.

However, offering hybrid teaching is not without its problems. The technology can be complicated and it is a pedagogical challenge to simultaneously teach students who are on site and students who are online. There is a clear risk that the quality of teaching will deteriorate. The directors of studies have therefore discussed the issue in detail and this resulted in a joint proposal for a policy, which was adopted by the board on 21 April.

“Provided that there are no pandemic-related restrictions, the premise of this policy is that a teacher or equivalent is never obliged to offer hybrid teaching because one or more students request it. BIG's approach is that hybrid teaching is generally a worse alternative, both from a pedagogical and a work environment perspective, but that it is the individual teacher and the teaching situation that decides whether any benefits can be considered.”

Can students demand hybrid teaching? Photo: Margareta Ohné