The Opportunity of Hybrid Learning

Abstract

In economics, the Laffer curve is a theoretical function that models how much revenue a government can raise through taxation. The curve suggests that if there are no taxes or 100% tax rates that a government will fail to raise income in either case. Obviously a 0% tax rate will raise no revenue but a 100% rate will also fail to raise revenue since people will have no incentive to work. The optimal amount of revenue is somewhere in between. Regardless of your own economic beliefs, I would suggest that there is also such a curve with respect to the amount of online content that is implemented in a course. The two extremes are clear, no online resources or a course done completely online with no face-to-face interaction. I believe neither extreme is optimal (though certainly not zero learning!) and that there must be some optimal value in between.