By Zach Vander Veen
One day students are in your classroom. The next day many of them are learning from home. This school year has been defined by constant updates—emails, texts, and phone calls about absences, positive COVID tests, quarantines, and temporary building closures. For educators, 2022 (and beyond) demands extraordinary flexibility in both planning and delivery.
Teaching in this on-again, off-again environment is exhausting. Beyond the challenge of connecting with students remotely, teachers face the risk of illness, chronic substitute shortages, unpredictable schedules, and the personal demands of family life. From administrators to custodial staff, the people who keep schools running continue to show up and adapt under immense pressure.
With time under strain, two central questions guide efficient lesson planning for hybrid learning:
- How can you teach efficiently?
- How can you teach effectively?
Below are five practical, high-level strategies to make lesson planning more manageable while preserving strong learning outcomes in a hybrid or shifting instructional context.
Here are 5 Tips for Efficient Lesson Planning for Hybrid Learning
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Design Online-First, Then Pause
Plan lessons assuming the online environment is the default. When you design activities, assessments, and resources to work well online, you reduce the need to create separate versions for in-person and remote learners. This approach minimizes duplication of effort and makes your curriculum resilient to sudden changes in student attendance or school status.
Designing online-first does not mean removing the benefits of face-to-face instruction, but it does prioritize accessibility and continuity so learning can continue even when students must stay home.
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Use Online Lessons as the Foundation for Face-to-Face Time
Well-structured online lessons can serve as the backbone for in-person sessions. If students complete core instructional materials, readings, or interactive modules online, you can use face-to-face time for higher-value activities: checks for understanding, collaborative problem solving, formative feedback, and hands-on practice. In short, let digital materials do the heavy lifting for content delivery and reserve live time for coaching and application.
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Automate Low-Level Learning Tasks
Leverage technology to handle routine cognitive work—memorization, basic practice, and fact retention. Flashcard apps, auto-graded quizzes, and spaced-repetition tools are effective for helping students Remember and Understand, which frees you to focus on higher-order thinking tasks such as analysis, evaluation, and creation.
When choosing tools, prioritize those that work across devices and platforms so students can engage from school, home, or a mobile device with minimal friction.
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Don’t Reinvent the Wheel — Use Quality Open Resources
High-quality Open Educational Resources (OER) can save enormous time in lesson development. OER materials are often openly licensed for reuse and adaptation, allowing you to incorporate ready-made lessons, multimedia, and assessments into your online course design. When evaluating OER, look for materials aligned to your standards and adaptable to your students’ needs. Using OER responsibly helps you provide varied, well-scaffolded learning opportunities without building everything from scratch.
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Establish and Rely on Routines
Humans are creatures of habit. Routines reduce cognitive load by minimizing the number of decisions students must make each day. Clear daily structures—how class begins, where assignments live, how to submit work, and how to seek help—help students conserve mental energy for learning. Consistent online routines also translate well to face-to-face classes, creating continuity across learning environments.
Additional practical points: keep instructions concise and visible, chunk lesson activities into short, measurable segments, and build quick formative checks into every session so you can identify gaps early. Prioritize essential standards and accept that not every lesson will be perfect. Efficiency often comes from smart prioritization and small, sustainable habits rather than heroic all-nighters.
What other strategies have you found useful for teaching in this flexible, unpredictable landscape? Share approaches that streamline planning, strengthen student engagement, or improve continuity between online and in-person instruction.
About the author
Zach Vander Veen has worked in many roles across education: history teacher, technology coach, administrator, and director of technology. He enjoys learning, teaching, traveling, and exploring new experiences with his family. Zach is a co-founder and serves as Vice President of Development and Customer Success at Abre.io, an education management platform.
Note: This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news organization focused on the transition to digital curriculum and instructional models.