The University of Houston Embraces Hybrid Instruction
Exemplary Art History Hybrid
A more detailed description of an exemplary hybrid course at UH may be of interest. This large art history survey course has reduced the number of class meetings from twice a week to once per week. The face-to-face meetings are used by the instructor to provide an over-arching perspective on the subject matter. A more intensive treatment of specific topics is supplied to students through online streaming video. Three to five-minute clips provide a graphic representation of the given concept accompanied by narration. The script and narration for a given video were provided by a faculty member with specific expertise in that topic area. Course instructor, Dr. Rex Koontz, explains that the videos allow him to bring experts into his class via streaming video in a way that would be logistically impossible to arrange in a traditional manner. Dr. Koontz has also achieved a level of integration between his course and a leading art museum that is unique. For example, students are assigned to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to participate in "explorations" several times during the semester. Explorations are individually customized tours to view art objects specified by the instructor. Each art object is complemented by a digitized sound file delivered through earphones and a one page, descriptive leaflet called an "Art Card" produced by the Museum's educational staff. The Art Card describes the object in relation to the evolution of art forms as well as in relation to the people and culture that created it. The final project in the class requires students to engage in authentic learning assessment by writing a museum quality Art Card for a museum art object of their choosing.