每周二下午，当艾伦·韦伯走进布洛赫行政大厅，在下午两点半上一堂课时.m. 在市场营销课上，他从不确定他的学生会在哪里. They might be sitting in the classroom in front of him; perhaps they’ll be on a screen as they dial in through Zoom; most likely, he’ll have a mix of both.
Weber, 布洛赫学院的助教, gives his undergraduate and graduate students a choice for each class: come in person or come online.
“It doesn’t matter, really,” Weber said. “I can see their face on the screen, 我们可以与他们和亲自来的学生进行交流.”
This hybrid model — offering classes simultaneously online and in-person—is gaining traction at a number of prominent business schools, including at Bloch. The hybrid model allows the school to better serve students who need additional flexibility to complete their degree while managing other responsibilities at work and at home.
学校的布洛赫行政大厅包含两个“RooFlex”教室, equipped with more than $100,价值1000美元的技术——多麦克风, cameras and monitors — designed to fully integrate online students with their in-person peers. These classrooms were designed and launched early during the pandemic and offered many benefits for students and faculty over the last few years. Further, the introduction of these classrooms provided an opportunity for the school to learn how best to deploy and use this new technology and this new classroom design.
当布洛赫学院在布洛赫行政大厅试验这些新教室时, 它还致力于翻修和重新设计布洛赫遗产大厅. 遗产大厅于2020年关闭，进行了大规模的翻新项目, one that was very much informed by what was being learned with the new hybrid technology being used in Bloch Executive Hall. 布洛赫遗产厅将于2022年7月重新开放, it also will feature this same type of hybrid classroom technology in a number of key locations within the building.
所以当学生们在秋天回到重新设计的布洛赫遗产大厅时, they will have a very different experience. In part, that new experience will be the result of a renovation that will feature a hub for student and career services, a new student commons, redesigned outdoor space for gathering and engagement and enhanced space for individual and group study. And in part, that new experience will be the result of new classroom designs and new hybrid instructional technology designed to encourage student success and engagement.
“The way that people work in general, 以及他们在时间上的不同义务, 这意味着灵活性是学生们所追求的,” Ward said. “这可能意味着时间——用自己的时间做功课. 或者它可能意味着地点——你不必一直在校园里上课.”
自大流行以来，这种灵活性实际上是对学生的一种要求.
布洛赫学院2019年的战略计划预计在2022年提供50门混合或在线课程, 75 in 2024 and 150 by 2029. 当疫情让所有人都进入封锁状态时，对在线课程的需求飙升. This year, 这所学校提供230个在线课程或混合课程, 因此，学生可以选择是来学校还是在家或办公室登录.
Executive MBA student Tracy Allen said returning to college wouldn’t have been possible without the flexibility the Bloch School offered. Allen, the founder and CEO of Brewed Behavior, a coffee consultancy based in Kansas City, had a busy career and two teenagers. Pursuing his MBA without the ability to dial in some of the time, Allen said, “would have been tough.”
“我上周末在墨西哥海岸的一艘游轮上上了(课). 我已经在三四个拉丁美洲国家做过了。. “有我的孩子在这里，周六在家还能上课真好.”
At the same time, he has felt it was important to go to campus and interact with his fellow students sometimes, too. 他说，拥有这两种选择是让这个项目对他起作用的关键.
Allen is not alone, especially among the Bloch School’s executive and professional MBA students who pursue their graduate degrees while managing a career and, in many cases, family life.
Brian Anderson, 执行副院长兼创业学副教授, said prior to the pandemic, 60%到40%的研究生更喜欢在线教学. Today, he said, it’s more like 85% to 15%.
“I think it is safe to say that students’ desire for flexibility will be a key consideration for schools over the next decade,” Anderson said.
关于这种灵活性长期来看会是什么样子的问题仍有待解答. In the early days of the pandemic, 布洛赫学院询问学生是否想回到校园. 但事实证明这是个错误的问题，安德森说.
“正确的问题不是‘你想来吗?正确的问题应该是:“你希望如何参与你的课程??’ ”
安德森说，答案是:“这要看情况.”
“Students want flexibility,” he said. “They want to be able to choose. Sometimes that choice is, ‘This semester, I have a really neat internship, 这要花很多时间和固定的时间, so I’d like to be online this semester. 但是下学期，我想去学校.’ ”
On the other hand, students might feel more comfortable meeting in person when certain courses or subjects are more challenging. 或者他们可能想要一个建立关系网和认识同龄人的机会.
布洛赫学院的官员承认，满足这种灵活性的需求是一种杂耍行为. 这可不像打开摄像头和麦克风那么简单. The evolution to online or hybrid course formats calls for not only changes in physical classrooms and faculty training, 还有课程结构和教学的新方法.
布洛赫商学院正致力于在每门课程的基础上应对不断变化的形势. 虽然现在有更多的课程提供远程选项, 安德森说，这些选择取决于课程内容和可用的教室.
并不是每门课程都像韦伯的市场营销课程那样具有完全的灵活性, 学生可以自己选择如何参与每节课. Professors might ask students to choose if they’d like to be in person or remote and require that they stick to that option for the entire semester. 其他的可能会给学生每学期可以拨打的有限次数. Still other courses — like those requiring a lot of small-group work — may not have a remote option at all.
“这确实创造了一个更具挑战性的规划难题, but also one that really allows us to think about what the best way is to deliver this course for our students and what their expectations are,” Anderson said. “It’s a student-centric approach.”
需要考虑的一个问题是需要多大的物理空间. 然而，一个更大的问题是，这个空间应该是什么样子. While some courses benefit from many small breakout areas where students can gather to do group work, others work better as one central room.
沃德说，翻修后的文物馆就是为了满足这些不同的需求而设计的. 当大楼重新开放时，至少有两间RooFlex教室将投入使用, and other classrooms already have the wiring and infrastructure ready to add remote technology when the time is right. Ward said the expense — more than $100,每间教室5000万美元——以及用于远程学习的快速发展的技术, 意味着这些投资将会保守地进行.
“We’re constantly looking at newer technology to do this — just to upgrade the way that it works, making it easier for the students,” Ward said. “当你建造一个老式的教室时——墙壁, windows, doors, desks — that works for a very long time. But outfitting one of these rooms doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to spend more (on upgrades) in couple of years.”
Bloch School officials point out remote learning technology is also bringing new changes and improvements in how instructors engage their students.
For example, a professor teaching in a RooFlex classroom could bring together subject matter experts from all over the country to speak to their students. Digital connections also allow for easy collaboration among students working together on problems or case studies. In his case, Weber said, 这项技术让他完全重新思考了他如何教授营销课程.
Before adopting a hybrid model, Weber said he spent 90% of class time delivering a lecture — one he delivered to each section he taught. Now he records the lecture, asks students to watch it as homework, 并利用课堂时间更直接地与学生互动.
韦伯说:“以前，我一周上两次课，没有多少交流. “Now, class is nothing but engagement. 面对面和一对一的讨论更有价值.”
Importantly, officials say, the investments being made now to allow distance learning also give students a valuable lesson in the kinds of remote communication methods they will inevitably encounter in the business world.
“We’re preparing students to be successful in what is a very rapidly changing technology business environment,” Anderson said. “It’s incumbent upon us to make those investments and be innovative with our courses and how we use technology to be sure we’re delivering the value we need to.”