Two-Year Community: A Six-Year Review of Student Success in a Biology Course Using Lecture, Blended, and Hybrid Methods

Traditional lecturing has been shown again and again to be a less effective teaching method regarding student engagement and promotion in the sciences. Studies that compare different teaching methods often face limitations because, over time, courses are either substantially changed and/or are taught by different instructors. This article presents a comparison of the success rates of students (percentage of students earning a grade of C or higher) enrolled in a general biology course with laboratory for majors in a community college. The data spans a 6-year period and includes a total of 670 students. The same professor taught all students and used a common final examination. The only difference among the sections taught was the teaching method: lecture, blended, and hybrid. The lecture method involved lecturing with the use of clicker-style questions and laboratory. The blended method was a fusion of the lecture and laboratory. The hybrid method consisted of online lectures with in-class weekly laboratory sessions. On average, the highest success rates for students were observed for those students taught with the blended method, followed next by the hybrid method, and then by the lecture method.