First-year Hybrid Spanish Courses: How Instructors Manage Their Time

Abstract

This study examines how instructors managed their time when teaching a first-year hybrid Spanish course. The hybrid course differed from the traditional one in that 50% of the face-to-face teaching was replaced with online activities. Another marked difference between the traditional and the hybrid courses was that the latter enrolled 60 students per section, twice the number of students in traditional ones. The results indicate that instructors may not need to work significantly more time than they would in a traditional course, but the course coordinators’ tasks will increase, as they will have to set-up virtual master courses. The perception reported by instructors that they seem to work longer to manage a hybrid course may be a consequence of the increased frequency of certain tasks and how they are managed. In other words, more effort may be needed to manage a hybrid class while allocating the same amount of time as in a traditional class.