Anyone ever organized a hybrid online/in-person co-op?

[Not_a_Number]

I've been working on organizing a co-op that meets both in-person and online and I was curious if anyone's ever done this before and whether anyone had any advice. 

As some of you know, I've been running math classes on Zoom since September. They have 5 kids and aren't muted and they have turned out really well -- none of the 5 kids have dropped out, and the kids have gotten a chance to interact. They also led to the formation of a "secret club" for the kids on Zoom, as well as a request for a second class, which means that the kids have really been meeting 3 times a week. 

I was thinking it'd be fun to do this in a more organized way next year -- to add a few families, add a time that we meet in-person every week or so (and provide a Zoom link for people who don't want to meet in-person just yet), and see if any of the other moms want to run a class. I'd probably also separate the math classes into two different groups, since I'm pretty adamant about keeping Zoom classes small. 

By the way, I charge $100 for the whole term's worth of math classes and I'll probably keep that up (this is a lot less than I charged when I was at our local center, but I do think some payment keeps people committed.) 

Anyone ever done this? Any tips or advice? 

[Not_a_Number]

Bump! Any thoughts at all? 

[catz]

Our in person co-op is online this year.  I have been teaching via zoom all this year.  I have been involved in leadership there for many years at this point. 

Are you going to be the only teacher?  My thought on that is, for me it is definitely more expensive to be online teaching given what I do.  I paid for a zoom membership, got some new tech like a light, an overhead arm to hold my phone for another view, a mic.  Given you are online now, maybe you're set up well.  But if I'm teaching in person, I have more materials and printing costs. So if I'm doing both, it will set my costs even higher.  Anyway- if you are just charging for people to have buy in and aren't necessarily worried about covering your costs, that's less of an issue.  If you are pulling in other teachers, you might ask them to consider  their costs carefully before setting pricing. I think a lot of teachers were a little stunned with the extra set up to do a decent online class.  

Our co-op is considering some of this for fall.  I have concerns about the bandwidth in our regular  meeting space being able to handle multiple zoom classes at a time.  So that's one consideration that we have that may not be relevant to you. 

I also think having a kid zoom in to a class while other kids are engaged onsite could probably end up being ungratifying for the kid at home.  I would consider it for kids who maybe have covid symptoms, need to quarantine, etc. But I am not sure I would be comfortable having someone pay for this the entire semester, I am still thinking on it.  

So if I'm teaching in person, I can have a more dynamic hands on class and  kids can engage with each other easily.  If I'm teaching online, it becomes more lecture or discussion based.  If I'm trying to do both well at once, I feel like both sides could potentially lose out.  If you're talking about tiny groups and you know everyone well enough you can gauge how it is working from week to week that might be easier.  

Anyway - some random thoughts I've had on this very topic. 

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, FuzzyCatz said:

Our in person co-op is online this year.  I have been teaching via zoom all this year.  I have been involved in leadership there for many years at this point. 

Are you going to be the only teacher?  My thought on that is, for me it is definitely more expensive to be online teaching given what I do.  I paid for a zoom membership, got some new tech like a light, an overhead arm to hold my phone for another view, a mic.  Given you are online now, maybe you're set up well.  But if I'm teaching in person, I have more materials and printing costs. So if I'm doing both, it will set my costs even higher.  Anyway- if you are just charging for people to have buy in and aren't necessarily worried about covering your costs, that's less of an issue.  If you are pulling in other teachers, you might ask them to consider  their costs carefully before setting pricing. I think a lot of teachers were a little stunned with the extra set up to do a decent online class.  

Our co-op is considering some of this for fall.  I have concerns about the bandwidth in our regular  meeting space being able to handle multiple zoom classes at a time.  So that's one consideration that we have that may not be relevant to you. 

I also think having a kid zoom in to a class while other kids are engaged onsite could probably end up being ungratifying for the kid at home.  I would consider it for kids who maybe have covid symptoms, need to quarantine, etc. But I am not sure I would be comfortable having someone pay for this the entire semester, I am still thinking on it.  

So if I'm teaching in person, I can have a more dynamic hands on class and  kids can engage with each other easily.  If I'm teaching online, it becomes more lecture or discussion based.  If I'm trying to do both well at once, I feel like both sides could potentially lose out.  If you're talking about tiny groups and you know everyone well enough you can gauge how it is working from week to week that might be easier.  

Anyway - some random thoughts I've had on this very topic. 

 

Ah yes, I think I wasn't clear enough -- I think all classes will be on Zoom in the fall, and there will be one social meet-up in person. For people who don't yet want to meet up in person, there will be a Zoom link for the social time. But I'm not actually going to run anything as a hybrid class: I think that would almost certainly short-change the kids on Zoom. 

By winter or spring, I'm rather hoping to have an in-person class as well as the Zoom class, on top of the in-person meet-up and the Zoom class. 

[catz]

9 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

 

Ah yes, I think I wasn't clear enough -- I think all classes will be on Zoom in the fall, and there will be one social meet-up in person. For people who don't yet want to meet up in person, there will be a Zoom link for the social time. But I'm not actually going to run anything as a hybrid class: I think that would almost certainly short-change the kids on Zoom. 

By winter or spring, I'm rather hoping to have an in-person class as well as the Zoom class, on top of the in-person meet-up and the Zoom class. 

Oh ok, that sounds good especially for the under 12 set!  Ours is ages 10+ and I am crossing fingers the powers that be decide to go ahead with mostly in person classes, especially for the 12+ kids.  Ours was talking about having a vaccine requirement without a medical exemption of some kind.  Which is interesting, we will see how that goes! I'm all for it though!

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, FuzzyCatz said:

Oh ok, that sounds good especially for the under 12 set!  Ours is ages 10+ and I am crossing fingers the powers that be decide to go ahead with mostly in person classes, especially for the 12+ kids.  Ours was talking about having a vaccine requirement without a medical exemption of some kind.  Which is interesting, we will see how that goes! I'm all for it though!

I was very much a fan of in-person classes until last year, but I feel like I've actually basically figured out how to run satisfying Zoom classes, and those have the advantage of no one having to haul far to get there. So it seems like they could be a nice component of a co-op and allow the kids more bonding time?? 

(Trick for running good Zoom classes: cap them at 5 kids and don't mute kids. Also, use the screen share functionality liberally.) 

[catz]

It  was an interesting year for our co-op. When we are in person, classes that are hands on and group oriented tend to go really well and be very popular. Like robotics, fencing, Shakespeare (taught theatrically), lab science, etc.  When we switched to online, there is some hands on stuff running but those classes are smaller.  But discussion based social studies, history, etc are more popular. We actually are running about half the classes we normally would. 

Our co-op is considering having some online options for other days as we go on though, we do have some teachers that prefer that format.  Our numbers are way down, it'll be interesting to see how it goes.  My kid is aging out and probably isn't returning so I'm probably just teaching the next year and we'll see.  

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, FuzzyCatz said:

But discussion based social studies, history, etc are more popular. We actually are running about half the classes we normally would. 

Interesting! I guess that makes a LOT of sense. 

Do you think anything was better in that format? 

[regentrude]

I haven't done a coop, but I have been teaching hybrid for the past year, with simultaneous in-person and Zoom students.
Takes a lot of attention splitting and tech agility.

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, regentrude said:

I haven't done a coop, but I have been teaching hybrid for the past year, with simultaneous in-person and Zoom students.
Takes a lot of attention splitting and tech agility.

Simultaneous seems very hard. Any tips? 

[regentrude]

1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

Simultaneous seems very hard. Any tips? 

Make sure to check that you're screen sharing what you mean to screen share. Simultaneously paying attention to live students, tablet on which I write, Zoom students, chat window and the screen share is hard.
Takes a conscious effort to switch eye contact between the live students and the camera. You can't always look into the classroom or always into the camera and have to make both feel like you're talking to them.
Breakout rooms are a poor substitute for live groups. I split my class into several small groups for problem solving and discussions, but interacting in turn with each of them gets complicated - the switching between the breakout rooms takes longer than walking from row to row in the classroom, and left to their own devices, some groups do not talk.