The role of students as active participants of the hybrid learning environment in vocational education

Abstract

Introduction and purpose. Hybrid learning has become an established form of vocational education rather than a temporary response to a crisis. Yet most scholarly discussion concentrates on the teacher, while the student appears as a recipient of pedagogical influence. This contradicts the logic of hybridity, which requires continuous decisions about the mode of attendance, the pace and the depth of work, and therefore presupposes learner subjectivity. The purpose is to systematise current understanding of the student as an active participant of the hybrid learning environment in vocational education and to substantiate the pedagogical conditions that support such activity.

A brief description of the state of knowledge. Frameworks that explain learner subjectivity are examined: self-determination theory, student agency and the Community of Inquiry model. Five interrelated dimensions of student activity are distinguished: behavioural, cognitive, emotional, social and agentic. The specificity of vocational education is analysed, where the practice-oriented component limits full virtualisation yet opens space for learner initiative. Attention is also given to digital competence, student participation in assessment, and barriers such as the digital divide, status asymmetry between online and on-site participants, and academic integrity.

Summary. Active participation does not arise automatically from the provision of choice; it results from deliberate pedagogical design. A system of pedagogical conditions is proposed: transparency of instructional design, parity between modes of participation, priority of collaborative work over content delivery, distributed responsibility for communication, formative assessment, and systematic development of learners’ digital competence.