Hybrid After COVID: How the Pandemic Shaped Expectations and Quality in a Professional Graduate Program

• In Event: Mapping Success: Pathways From Admission to Graduation

Abstract

Our EdD program (member of CPED) features in-person days coupled with online learning. We spent two pandemic years fully online. When we went back in person in 2022, the world had changed. Travel costs increased and many students now expect online accommodations. Others expressed relief and joy at being back in person. How should hybrid programs balance these factors? We spent a year studying this, with faculty meetings, student focus groups, and a student survey (N=90 responses). Our primary finding was bimodal: one group was strongly committed to in-person learning and for another group, the convenience and lower cost of online learning was dominant. Moving forward, hybrid programs must find ways to balance modalities in ways that meet current realities.

Authors

• Thomas Akiva, University of Pittsburgh

• Tinukwa C. Boulder, University of Pittsburgh

• Jill Alexa Perry, Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate

• Rachel Robertson, University of Pittsburgh