Opting in or opting out: The role of hybrid Learning course design on student persistence decisions in an Indigenous pre-nursing transitions program

Abstract

Transitions programs to support non-traditional students have a long history in Canada. Despite investment in these programs over more than thirty years, there still exists a considerable gap between Indigenous students’ graduation rates and those of their non-Indigenous counterparts, with significant numbers of students dropping out of university programs within the first year. At the same time hybrid learning has been posed as an innovation that stands to disrupt current educational paradigms. The goal of this small scale exploratory case study was to determine what attributes of the design and structure of a hybrid learning environment encouraged positive persistence decisions for Indigenous students. The results of this case study describe the complexity of decisions made by Indigenous students when choosing to participate in a learning event. Further, the results highlighted the importance of flipped learning design and support that takes into account Indigenous pedagogy.