Are You Ready to Go Hybrid?

The word "hybrid" is rapidly becoming part of the American vocabulary and is synonymous with a number of benefits, including lower transportation costs and increased fuel efficiency. These benefits are accomplished by blending electric motors and gasoline engines to power an automobile. Hybrid education is also a blending process that combines classroom-based education with technologically distributed teaching methods. Just like the automotive application of the term, hybrid education can lower the costs and increase the efficiency of the educational programs we offer.

Using technology to distribute education includes a number of methods, such as CD-ROM, videotape, satellite and the Internet. These methods are collectively referred to as "distributed" or "distributive" methods. Regardless of the technology involved, the common denominator of distributed methods is that teaching and learning can occur without an instructor and student being together at the same time and place, which is what makes these methods so attractive to EMS administrators, educators and field providers.

Benefits of Hybrid Education
Three factors are driving the growth of hybrid EMS education: pressure to lower training costs; difficulty scheduling training, particularly for classroom-dependent programs like EMT-Basic and refresher training; and growing availability of technology as a solution for delivering effective education.

The cost of conducting required and optional training in an EMS organization is a significant part of the annual budget. Face-to-face education in a classroom or skills lab involves not only the cost of educator salaries, equipment and facilities, but also includes the salary expense of the students in attendance, as well as overtime costs paid to those employees who cover each student's duty shift while he is in the classroom.

Scheduling training can be a nightmare for EMS administrators. In 2001, prior to implementing an online education system, the City of Orlando Fire Department reviewed the overhead associated with providing training to 350+ field personnel. Delivering a one- to three-hour training program to all personnel required offering the class twice a day for 18 days.2 Because rotating people through classrooms or training centers for all training is logistically impossible or cost-prohibitive for many fire-rescue organizations, many departments decentralize instruction by distributing a monthly teaching syllabus to company-level officers who conduct training at the station during duty shifts. Unfortunately, distributing curricula to be taught by personnel who may lack teaching expertise raises quality concerns regarding the consistency of education delivery.

Hybrid education offers a solution to cost and scheduling problems. In short, the majority of the EMS workforce now has access to the Internet either at home or work, which allows it to capitalize on the benefits of Internet-based distributed learning.

Perhaps the strongest attraction to hybrid education for EMS is that it caters to people who can benefit from an alternative delivery format because of their busy schedules, but who also need the face-to-face support offered in a classroom. EMS education often involves learning psychomotor skills, which are best accomplished in a hands-on environment, but there is plenty of information regarding associated signs, symptoms and scenarios surrounding the use of clinical treatment skills that can be effectively taught in an online environment. In a hybrid course, seat time in the classroom is reduced and a variety of course activities like lectures, multimedia demonstrations, simulations, discussion groups, and testing and written assignments can all be accomplished online.