Students taking online courses through CU Online enjoy greater scheduling flexibility, but sometimes feel they need more of a structured environment found in a traditional classroom. This is why CU Online now offers a hybrid between these two learning environments.

A hybrid course is one which uses technology delivered instruction (web, cdrom, etc...) as a substitute for a portion of the instruction that would otherwise be conducted by an instructor or TA in a campus classroom or laboratory. Hybrid courses at CU-Denver commonly substitute technology-based instruction for one-half of the normal campus classroom hours but other mixes of campus and online instruction are also offered.

Hybrid courses follow the same faculty governance policies as the established on-campus courses. All CU Online faculty members are approved by the department and usually teach on-campus courses as well. Many of the instructors are experts who are working in the field in which they teach and bring vast knowledge and resources from their industry to their online teaching.