Navya Batra: Hi and welcome to Deep Diving with the Talon, where we take a deeper look and examine a spotlight article from last week. I’m your host Navya Batra and today we are looking at Emily Francis’ breaking news article OPUSD board approves plan to return to on-campus instruction in a hybrid model. Today I’m here with 

Dr. Jay Greenlinger: Dr Jay Greenlinger director of curriculum and instruction. 

Batra: Hi Dr. Greenlinger, so first of all can you give me a quick summary of what Hybrid learning even looks like? 

Greenlinger: We call it hybrid learning but in my educational research circle it’s actually called Blended learning. And it’s the idea that there’s a blend between synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as in person and not in person learning, so hybrid learning is a little bit different than distance learning but not quite as different as many expected to be. 

Batra: Under what conditions do you see these plans changing? 

Greenlinger: It is really up to the public health officials and the state of the virus. So right now our county is in red so we are allowed to return in small amounts if the virus should improve then the opening of school can increase and if things get worse with the virus then again we would have to retract. If the virus were to go up again and put us into the purple prior to January then we might have to delay our move into hybrid. So, it’s really not in our hands, we just have to respond to what the situation is with the virus in Ventura county.

Batra: Is hybrid learning going to be mandatory for all students?

Greenlinger: No, parents are going to have the choice in a few weeks here to choose to stay on distance learning or to go into hybrid learning.

Batra: How are extracurricular activities that are also classes going to work?

Greenlinger: Those we’re still looking at to see what’s the best way to continue to offer those in a hybrid setting. A lot of this since March is we don’t know and we can’t plan until we kind of know, and so that’s hard because people want answers and want us to know but a lot of this we can’t. We are unable to plan too far ahead until we know what the situation will be.

Batra: Right, for sure. So the last question I have is, I know a lot of students have been worried about testing, so how exactly is the grading policy going to work during hybrid learning?

Greenlinger: The grading policy isn’t going to change. Hybrid teachers are going to have to be using some different practices for testing and assessment as they’re doing during distance learning again. So these things teachers are going to explore what the best option is for a particular assessment and they will know that there will be some students at home on distance learning that assessment students in person taking it that the grading policies are not going to change. 

Batra: Alright. That’s all my questions.  Do you have anything you would like to add?

Greenlinger: No, just for you all to know that this is the first time for everyone doing this it seems like every few months we’re all exploring a very new look at school. The good thing is that we’ve got great teachers and administrators and of course great students. We know we’re putting your all into l into this so I hope to see it when we go back to hybrid.

Batra: Thank you so much Dr. Greenlinger, and thank you all for listening. That’s all for today. See you next time with deep diving.