EXPLORING THE APPLICATION OF HYBRID TEACHING/LEARNING METHOD IN INTERACTION DESIGN CLASS

Interaction design is a growing field due to rapidly emerging technological developments. The evolution of digital technologies over the last years suggests that there is also a growing need for educational scholars to consider new and more applicable models. Program directors and universities could devise novel approaches to curriculum design that are effective in delivering a multidisciplinary blend of theory and best practices. In addition to the technological developments, other factors have contributed to the application of some online teaching method, such as, enhancement of technology, increased accessibility, free up classroom space, reaching wider audience, removal of psychological and social barriers to interaction, schedule flexibility, among others. Online and face-to-face education have their own advantages and in order to achieve better teaching and learning results, the strong parts of these two can be combined for specific classes (i.e., Interaction Design) in which implementation of hybrid teaching/learning method could be a good choice. Since Interaction Design (IxD) is an area that is closely related with technology, it is more expected to use technological approaches (i.e., hybrid teaching/learning) throughout its teaching program. IxD has been taught face-to-face in undergraduate degree at IADE, Universidade Europeia. The program of the IxD class is consisted of two parts: theoretical and practical. Since the percentage of the practical part is more than theoretical, hybrid teaching/learning method can be a good solution to enhance performance of students exposed to a hybrid teaching method than the performance of students exposed to only face-to-face classes. Therefore, this paper argues the ways of applicability of hybrid teaching/learning method to IxD class in undergraduate degree.