A Historically Black College's Approach to Integrating Culturally Diverse Teaching and Learning Strategies in an Online Classroom Platform

Online Teaching in Higher Education

Increased access and advances in technology has motivated colleges across the nation to offer more courses and degree programs via online platforms. While several factors have contributed to this trend, rising institutional costs and declining funding for higher education have spurred interests in finding alternatives to lecture based-teaching practices in traditional brick and mortar settings (Galway, Corbett, Takaro, Tairyan, & Frank, 2014). Studies have examined the advantages and disadvantages of online teaching in higher education since the emergence of the Internet (Gómez-Rey, Barbera, & Fernández-Navarro, 2016). With a variety of models/approaches to online teaching, one model of increasing popularity in the “hybrid” model. The hybrid model (where 50% of instruction is conducted face to face and 50% is delivered via an online platform) provides an alternative to the lecture driven face to face model or fully online formats of instruction. A 2010 study by the United States Department of Education reported that the hybrid model is more effective than either of these models. This model also allows for the integration of technology to deliver content online freeing up classroom time “to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning” with classmates and the instructor (Galway et al., 2014, p. 2). Given the diverse array of options for online delivery systems, educators suggest that these models of instruction be coupled with appropriate teaching practices, such as culturally responsive teaching, to better meet the learning needs of students.