Hybrid learning has become a key methodology for health education, combining face-to-face and virtual experiences that enhance reflection, collaboration, and patient safety. The Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil (UCSG) demonstrates how this technological and pedagogical integration transforms clinical simulation, promoting more flexible, immersive teaching that is adapted to the current challenges of health training.
The facilitator, in accordance with INACSL’s Health Simulation Best Practice Standards (HSSOBP), is responsible for and supervises the management of the simulation-based experience. However, although simulation is a methodology in which other methodologies are implicit, such as the debriefing process, there are different methods to facilitate learning; and the choice of a particular method depends on what the student needs to learn and the objectives to be achieved.
In other words, the most appropriate method must be selected according to the situation, the student, and what is expected to be achieved with the teaching process. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a crucial role in providing tools that enrich these experiences, as long as they focus on the educational methodology of their use rather than the technology itself. Constant technological advances and changing demands in the field of education have created a need to explore new methodologies that enhance the teaching-learning process.
Hybrid learning: An alternative to remote education!
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote education has emerged with emerging technologies that differ from traditional education. Educational institutions were expected to respond not only with technological infrastructure, but also with staff who can adapt to change and know how to optimize functions and use these resources. Teachers were also expected to design innovative teaching strategies to encourage critical and reflective thinking, facilitating the effective transfer of knowledge, keeping up to date with educational methodologies, and ensuring that our students learn to be self-taught, capable of developing technological and collaborative skills that encourage constant reflection on their own learning. Thus, they resorted to implementing existing methodologies, innovating by incorporating new and effective elements.
The hybrid learning model emerges as an innovative proposal that combines both face-to-face and virtual elements, offering an immersive and effective educational experience.
In Ecuador (2020), learning was restricted to remote education in an online format. However, in 2021, some universities began to adopt a hybrid approach. This change was conditioned by limited access to closed physical spaces due to the implementation of strict protection protocols and the need for adequate technological infrastructure to support a hybrid system. In this context, hybrid learning was chosen as an educational strategy to facilitate simulation.
Hybrid learning is defined as a pedagogical approach that synergistically combines face-to-face and virtual, but synchronous, learning modalities, creating a learning environment that optimizes opportunities for interaction, reflection, and knowledge construction. This approach leverages emerging technologies as mediating tools, enriching the teaching-learning process and promoting flexibility, accessibility, and the comprehensive development of students. In addition to dialectically articulating the face-to-face and virtual, it integrates the participation of codebriefers with participants from other universities who promote a community of collaboration and learning, with the aim of improving academic quality and strengthening patient safety in healthcare.
The UCSG experience: challenges and opportunities
The implementation of hybrid learning educational mechanisms and strategies in simulations offered us the benefit of combining the immersive face-to-face experience with students who, for some reason, could not physically access the facilities of the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil (UCSG); while also allowing us to use virtual resources and activities to reinforce knowledge, such as class planning or pre-briefing, and simultaneously reinforce comprehensive analysis before or after the simulation experience. This maximized the development of technical and non-technical skills, in addition to allowing our students to reflect on the application of their knowledge in a safe environment with risks and benefits to third parties. It combines face-to-face and virtual activities, offering flexibility and accessibility. It also facilitated access to support materials, continuous feedback, and videos recorded during debriefing, which enriched face-to-face sessions in virtual environments and consolidated learning by improving clinical performance in simulated scenarios.
New training opportunities were required to prepare teachers in innovative methodologies and improve simulation facilitation, after facing challenges such as traditional teaching methods and the lack of appropriation of emerging technologies. The key to this comprehensive approach has been careful planning, training of teachers and students, and the appropriate selection and design of technologies and teaching materials. All this with the aim of enriching the teaching-learning process and offering more meaningful simulation experiences.
It is necessary to adopt broader pedagogical approaches that identify opportunities to establish collaborations and create learning communities.
The training sessions held with teachers promoted in-depth reflection on interdisciplinarity in the creation of scenarios and the integration of emerging technologies. This not only facilitated participation but also improved feedback and interaction through remote co-debriefers. Thus, a broad and collaborative pedagogical approach was consolidated.
Towards continuous educational transformation
Experience shows that educational innovation is a continuous process. Hybrid learning in simulation has proven to be transformative, improving the training of healthcare professionals and providing a solid foundation for future implementations. With a strategy focused on effective facilitation and the intelligent use of technologies, we are building a more holistic and effective education system, capable of responding to the challenges of our time.
READ ALSO
