Hybrid courses for preparing elementary mathematics specialists: Challenges, successes, and lessons learned

Post-secondary education has seen an explosion of interest in computer-supported collaborative learning as a pathway for teacher education. Hybrid courses potentially provide broader access to coursework while keeping costs manageable. In this chapter, the authors report on the iterated design and implementation of hybrid courses designed to prepare teachers to become elementary mathematics specialists. The authors describe a framework for building face-to-face and synchronous online sessions that complement each other, while attending to community building, the exploration of mathematical and pedagogical content, as well as the development of leadership skills and tools. They discuss how they have addressed the challenges of online coursework in their evolving course design. They present their successes and how they have capitalized on the opportunities these successes offer, and they conclude by synthesizing the lessons they have learned, the implications of our work, and the recommendations they have for moving forward.