The Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) together with the Moscow City Pedagogical University (MGPU) and VTB Bank held a webinar "Hybrid Learning — New Pedagogy for Higher Education".

The Business School, together with partners, has developed and is implementing a hybrid learning methodology for higher education. The team designed pedagogical scenarios for working with a hybrid classroom and created a technology space — a smart classroom.

At the webinar, the speakers said:

• what hybrid learning is and why implement it;
• how to build the implementation process using the design thinking methodology;
• how university professors design and deliver hybrid classrooms.

Alexander Bayzarov, Head of the Hybrid Learning project, Advisor at VTB Bank, spoke about the approach to synchronous (online and offline) learning from a special classroom.

“Responding to the challenges of the pandemic and the request of the university community to return to classrooms taking into account restrictions, VTB Bank has invested in the development of a hybrid form of education for partner universities. Thanks to GSOM SPbU, we managed to make not just a technical solution, but a full-fledged teaching and learning methodology in a hybrid format.

Now we realize that our joint work has allowed us to create a solution at the level of the world's leading universities and EdTech companies — we exchange experience with Harvard Business School, Arizona State University, IE University, HSE and other partners."

Senior Lecturer of the GSOM SPbU Marketing Department, Head of Hybrid Learning Methodology Olga Alkanova notes the transition from the "emergency" introduction of hybrid learning in response to the challenges of the pandemic to the systemic use of this format in the educational process.

“Given the potential of the format, we started a discussion about the future of hybrid classrooms after the pandemic. We see great prospects in redesigning educational programs, increasing their flexibility and using hybrid forms of education in the development of network interaction. "

Kirill Barannikov, Vice-Rector for Development, Moscow State Pedagogical University, focused on the existing research discourse and the place of the hybrid learning among other approaches to teaching in higher education:

“We have an online, hybrid, offline learning formats now. At the same time, there is often no distinction between hybrid and blended learning, but our research shows a difference between the two.

So, blended learning arose as the development of offline formats, complementing them with just the possibility of online interaction. Hence, the share of distance and asynchronous formats in blended learning is noticeably lower than in hybrid.

Hybrid learning as an independent category has sounded in the last two years, fixing a special teaching methodology. With it, initially, when designing programs and classes, three tracks are distinguished: offline interaction, remote interaction and online activity (independent work with online content and resources). At the same time, the share of asynchronous formats, where the student works independently, takes a large share in the hybrid. "

GSOM SPbU invites all interested experts to partner. If you want to take part in a study or create an infrastructure for hybrid learning, write to hybrid@gsom.spbu.ru or bayzarov@vtb.education (Alexander Bayzarov).

The next webinar of GSOM SPbU, MGPU and VTB Bank will be held on February 3 (Thursday), 16:00. Registration is available at the link >>