Hyflex
Hyflex
Hyflex
Brian J. Beatty
Version: 1.62
Brian J. Beatty
Of course, none of this would have even started without our need to
serve students better in the Instructional Technologies graduate
program at San Francisco State. To those students who experienced
the early versions of HyFlex course design I offer my eternal thanks
for their patience, enthusiasm to be part of something new and
different, and for their willingness to share their experiences in class,
in course evaluations, research surveys, and in targeted messages to
HyFlex students and faculty. Highlighted in this book in Chapter 2.2.
I'd also like to thank my family for their support, patience and
willingness to live a life that requires flexibility itself in many ways:
Nellie, my life partner, and our children Elizabeth, Teresa, Jennifer,
Katherine, Angela and Christopher. Our shared academic journey
allowed each of you to follow your own path through your formal
learning years, discovering what worked best for your specific
situation at the time. You provided lived evidence every day of the
value of adapting instruction to meet the unique needs of learners,
including participation mode. Special thanks to Teresa for the cover
design for the book!
I leave you with a final piece of ancient wisdom that seems very
appropriate for an open access work: ”It is more blessed to give than
Suggested Citation
This book provides readers with strategies, methods, and case stories
related to Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) course design so that they (you!)
Beginnings
Where Does Hybrid-Flexible Come From?
Brian J. Beatty
We first looked at what was already being done (and written about) in
higher education. Did a course or program design already exist that
would meet our needs?
FlexLearning (2012)
Multi-Options (2014)
Blendflex (2016)
Comodal (2016)
He, Gajski, Farkas, & Warschauer (2014) use the term “flexible
hybrid” to describe their modified hybrid course that includes three
different instructional formats: online, hybrid (student controlled),
and flipped. Findings from their detailed and comprehensive study of
the relationship between student choices of instructional format and
corresponding performance factors (exam grades, self-reported
perceptions, study effort, etc.) are reviewed in Chapter 2.5 Evaluating
the Impact of Hybrid-Flexible Courses and Programs.
gxLearning (2011)
Blendsync (2011)
References
Beatty, B. (2006, October) Designing the HyFlex World- Hybrid,
Flexible Classes for All Students. Paper presented at the Association
for Educational Communication and Technology International
Conference, Dallas, TX.
Beatty, B., Littlefield, C., Miller, J., Rhoads, D., Shaffer, D., Shurance,
M. and Beers, M. (2016, April) Hybrid Flexible Course and Program
Design: Models for Student-Directed Hybrids. Paper and panel session
presented at the OLC Innovate 2016 Conference, New Orleans, LA.
Bower, M., Kennedy, G. E., Dalgarno, B., Lee, M. J. W., and Kenney, J.
(2014). Blended synchronous learning: A handbook for educators.
Retrieved from http://blendsync.org/handbook/
Bower, M., Dalgarno, B., Kennedy, G.E., Lee, M., & Kenney, J. (2015).
Design and implementation factors in blended synchronous learning
environments: outcomes from a cross-case analysis. Computers &
Education, 86, 1-17.
Hill, J., Yang, X., Kim, E. E., Oh, J, Choi, I., Branch, R. M., Lee, H., &
Keisler, B. (2018). Creating a Flexibly Accessible Learning
Environment. Conference presentation at Association for Educational
Communications and Technology Annual Convention. Kansas City,
MO. (2018, October).
Irvine, V., Code, J., & Richards, L. (2013). Realigning higher education
for the 21st century learner through multi-access learning. Journal of
Online Learning and Teaching, 9(2), 172.
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy. R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2010).
Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-
analysis and Review of Online-learning Studies. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Education.Orey, M. (2002, February). One year of
Smith, B., Reed, P., & Jones, C. (2008) ‘Mode Neutral’ Pedagogy,
European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning.
https://edtechbooks.org/-nba
Suggested Citation
Brian J. Beatty
Brian J. Beatty
Why put all this effort into supporting students’ directing their own
hybrid learning experience? Beyond the argument that students may
be more able than instructors to make “best mode of participation”
decisions for themselves, it may be even more important that HyFlex
instruction obliterates common student excuses for non-participation
associated with schedule conflicts, travel difficulties, and such. When
meaningful and equivalent in-class participation alternatives are
“built-in”, continuously ready to support learning, and are clearly
explained to all students, there is no excuse for "skipping class." In
fact, instructors are supported in mandating class participation
(attendance) even if an institution does not require attendance in
classroom-based classes. A relatively recent (2010) meta-analysis of
the impact of class attendance on student grades found a strong
relationship between class attendance (in face to face instruction) and
both student grades in class and overall GPA. (Crede, Roch &
Kieszczynka, 2010) As long as the HyFlex course design implements
effective online alternatives to in-class instructional activities, and
requires student participation in either mode in each class session,
the positive impact of student attendance should be present.
Figure 1.2.1
What are the major benefits of HyFlex? Below I’ve listed several
common and significant benefits, organized by the stakeholder who is
most closely associated with each.
Benefits to Students
Benefits to Faculty
Benefits to Administration/Institution
Major Costs
What are the major costs to those implementing HyFlex? Below I’ve
listed several common and significant costs associated with HyFlex
implementations, organized by associated stakeholder group.
Costs to Students
Costs to Faculty
Time, time, time… the clear cost to faculty (especially when getting
started) with HyFlex is the additional time it takes most to create two
learning complete paths through a course in order to fully support
both online and in-class participation. Some are compensated for the
additional time they spend on course development; many are not,
finding ways to rearrange their other work to allow for HyFlex
development. Since no one can add time to their day, this is an
unavoidable cost. See Chapter 2.1. Teaching a Hybrid-Flexible
Course for a more detailed exploration of the costs to faculty. Several
case reports in Unit III describe specific faculty costs (challenges,
issues) addressed during local implementation.
Costs to Administrators/institution
References
Crede, M., Roch, S. G., and Kieszczynka, U. M. (2010). Class
Attaendance in College: A meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship of
Class Attendance with grades and Student Characteristics. Review of
Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy. R., Bakia, M., and Jones, K. (2010).
Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-
analysis and Review of Online-learning Studies. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Education.
Suggested Citation
Brian J. Beatty
Brian J. Beatty
Four values have guided our HyFlex design effort since its beginning
in 2006: learner choice, equivalency, reusability, and accessibility.
(Beatty, 2007)
Learner Choice
Equivalency
Reusability
Accessibility
The design “drivetrain” that results starts with values, which drive the
instructional or learning goals, which drive the selection of overall
instructional strategies, which are implemented by specific
instructional activities, selected in conjunction with the consideration
of contextual factors. (See Beatty, 2002 for an example of this design
planning approach to developing guidance for social interaction
online.)
The four HyFlex values have guided the development of the HyFlex
Suggested Citation
Designing a Hybrid-Flexible
Course
Creating an Effective Learning Environment for All
Students
Brian J. Beatty
For example:
Opportunities (Benefits)
At the detail level, every institution or program will have its own
unique set of opportunities, so this step should not be overlooked.
Program sponsors (department chairs, deans, provosts, presidents)
will all have their own expectations of value return, and only a
thorough analysis at the front end of the design process will reveal
these so the design can adequately address them and hopefully meet
them over time. Unstated, unexplored or misunderstood expectations
typically lead to serious problems later on, especially when those
expectations are surfaced after the implementation as points used to
challenge claims of success by designers and instructors.
Challenges (Costs)
Figure 1.4.1
In completing this step, your team should be able to list the student
learning outcomes; oftentimes instructors start with their existing
classroom-based instructional outcomes. With those identified, the
follow-on task is to decide how well each of those outcomes can be
met in the online delivery mode(s), and whether or not outcome
revisions are needed. In some cases, an outcome that can be
effectively met in a classroom should be revised so that it can be met
as effectively by students participating online asynchronously and/or
synchronously (depending on the planned online mode(s)). For
example, an outcome related to developing deep understanding of a
concept through face-to-face small group discussions in a classroom
may be over-prescribed for the online students. Online synchronous
students may be able to meet the same learning outcome in the same
small group-discussion manner (though in an online classroom
environment), but asynchronous students may not be able to
participate effectively in small group discussions (depending greatly
on various context factors), so the outcome may need to be revised to
remover the activity aspect (participation in a face-to-face small group
discussion).
Figure 1.4.2
1. What are the specific details about what the student must
Figure 1.4.3
What—exactly—will be assessed?
How will this assessment be conducted for students in each
participation mode?
What additional issues associated with participation mode
(timing, sharing, etc.) may have to be solved or at least
considered for this context?
Once the HyFlex implementation has run long enough to generate the
required data, then carry out the plan you developed and summarize
the results. The governing mechanism overseeing the HyFlex program
will then be equipped to make decisions about program success,
potential revision or possible cessation.
Figure 1.4.5
References
Giancola, S. P. (2014). Education Matters: Getting the Information you
need from your Evaluation. Report prepared for the U.S. Department
of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, School
Kuh, G. D., Ikenberry, S. O., Jankowski, N. A., Cain, T. R., Ewell, P. T.,
Hutchings, P., & Kinzie, J. (2015). Using Evidence of Student Learning
to Improve Higher Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Suggested Citation
Teaching a Hybrid-Flexible
Course
The Faculty Experience in HyFlex
Brian J. Beatty
Workload
There are several areas of faculty workload that may increase, to
varying extent, due to the HyFlex course design and teaching both in-
class and online students.
First, developing the course plan and materials itself will take longer
than developing the same for a single mode class. If a faculty has
experience developing for both modes of instruction already, there
aren’t many new skills that are needed. The one thing that is new for
an experienced faculty such as this is designing ways to support
developing a learning community for students who may only
participate in one mode or the other, and who may never meet each
other in person. This differs from the challenge in a fully online course
because of the possibility that fully online students may be treated
differently (less interaction, less relationship, less community “feel”)
than students who meet together in a classroom setting frequently or
even just occasionally. Course planning should explicitly support
facilitating an active and engaging learning community shared by all
Time: Are there ways that your institution can provide more time to
faculty, either to develop a HyFlex course or to teach one? Or both?
Money: Are there ways your institution can provide financial rewards
(money) to faculty to compensate for additional workload? Some
institutions may provide an additional stipend (direct payment) or
travel/professional development funds for developing a new HyFlex
course or for teaching a HyFlex class. Some may even provide more
money to those teaching increased numbers of students in a HyFlex
class if the enrollment capacity was increased due to the HyFlex
format. Amounts vary considerably, as you may imagine. Local
policies, practices, and expectations will be most powerful in setting
appropriate amounts.
What might work in your case? What do your instructors value? How
can you provide that value?
Table 2.1.1
Online Online
Classroom
Synchronous Asynchronous
Instructor
acknowledges
Instructor online students
Dynamic,
addresses in class
interesting
Content online students recordings and in
presentation
similarly to in- recorded
of content
class students messages to
asynchronous
students
Instructor
Meaningful presence in
Instructor
discussions; online
engages online
collaborative discussions is
students
Engagement activities obvious,
during in-class
involving frequent, and
discussion and
students and contributes to
group activities
instructor the conversation
over time
Instructor
intentionally
Ongoing
injects Feedback to
informal
opportunities students during
assessment
for interaction instructional
of learning
to support activities is
Assessment during
informal timely, accurate,
content
assessment of and significant
presentation
learning during (not abbreviated
and
content or trivial)
activities
presentation
and activities
Patricia Donohue:
http://youtu.be/B5FTHXA1Vbk (approximately 15 minutes)
“If you want to learn more about Hyflex or get hands-on experience
organizing a course in an LMS, a nice way to get started is to work
with a professor who has used this approach before. I did this during
the Fall 2010 semester, and learned a lot.
To begin, ask your advisor if any instructors are looking for support or
1. SETUP: Meet with the instructor at least two weeks before the
semester begins (several months before would be even better).
Review the course materials and discuss how the professor
envisions the class. It’s important, in this early stage, to have a
solid course syllabus and access to most or all of the course
content, unless that content will be driven by guest speakers.
Determine if any materials need to be converted for online use,
or if there are opportunities to improve the materials through
changes in instructional media. See if you can help find the
most timely online materials, or offer viewpoints that reflect
current student expectations about the topics under discussion.
Some instructors may worry about content ownership in
loading their instructional materials into the LMS; I was glad
mine didn’t, but if this comes up, discuss it with your advisor.
2. ASSIGNMENT FLOW: Next, decide on all the small details of
iLearn use. How will the professor present assignments? How
will students deliver their work? How will reflection, peer
exchanges, and feedback occur? In most cases, instructors will
simply post files, and use the forum tool for assignments, but
some may want to venture into quizzes and other functionality
that iLearn easily supports. When students respond, will they
type their responses in the iLearn editor or attach a file? When
they attach file, which file formats can the instructor accept?
References
Bower, M., Kennedy, G. E., Dalgarno, B., Lee, M. J. W., and Kenney, J.
(2014). Blended synchronous learning: A handbook for educators.
Retrieved from http://blendsync.org/handbook/Conrad, D. & Openo, J.
(2018). Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and
Authenticity. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.
Dabbagh N., Marra, N., & Howland, J.L. (2018). Meaningful Online
Learning: Integrating Strategies, Activities, and Learning
Technologies for Effective Designs. London: Routledge.
Suggested Citation
Learning in a Hybrid-Flexible
Course
The Student Experience in HyFlex Courses
Brian J. Beatty
In the HyFlex course design I’ve used, activities connect online and
classroom students in meaningful ways, in an effort to support and
[Note: Some course designs also use substantial group projects that
include students from multiple particpation modes in the same group.
This method can work well, but it also may be complicated for
students who are not prepared to work alongside both local and
remote students.]
“Weekly you will post your thoughts about the class, your project and
the instructional design field in an ongoing discussion thread. These
posts are intended to help you consider questions important to you,
and capture your thoughts at selected instances in time. Posts will be
viewable by others, though there is no requirement for others to read
or reply to anyone else’s posts.” (ITEC 801 Instructional Design
Course Syllabus)
“This term has been a valuable one for me, and this class played no
small part in my success. I would have to go out on a limb and say that
what I lost in social interaction by attending online was more than
made up for by the process of reflection, essays, and blog posts. It is
surprising to me the power of being able to record my thoughts for
posterity. The intentionality of posting a thought or request is
surprisingly effective in directing one’s actions and goals. Perhaps it
is just as important that these posts were tempered with the
knowledge that they were in a public forum and I would be
When online students are part of our synchronous class, they join in
the live small group discussions, either together with other
synchronous online students (using our current web conferencing
tool) or with one or more classroom students using a local computer
workstation (typically a student laptop) to connect. Online students
who complete their class activities later that week are required to join
in the topical discussion that was started in class. I’ve found that
many classroom students are drawn back into the discussion forum
later in the week, in response to the participation of their online
colleagues, even though they aren’t required to extend their
participation beyond the formal class session. Daily LMS summaries
of new online discussion posts help bring about this additional
participation.
jolt you need to get things going again. It will also give
One quick and simple way to get a feel for how things
are going with any course is to talk with your instructor
and hybrid courses are no exception. You’ll have quite a
number of options to do this. You can chat with them
through
_____________________________________
Do
General Advice
Mostly/Only Online
_____________________________________
References
Barrett, S., Poe, C., & Spagnola-Doyle, C. (2008). Power Up: A
Practical Student’s Guide to Online Learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson.
Brian J. Beatty
Supporting Hybrid-Flexible
Courses and Programs
The Administrator Experience with HyFlex Courses
and Programs
Brian J. Beatty
“Orville and Wilbur Wright became the first in flight because they applied a mechanical principle that
followed their collaborative method. The key to keeping a craft in the air they grasped, was not to make it
strong and sturdy. On the contrary, it had to be flexible. The plane itself – and the pilot at the controls –
must be able to adjust easily and quickly. In the sky, with winds rushing and ever changing, there was no
such thing as inherent stability – only a dynamic stability, which, though it might sound like a
contradiction, actually had a lot to do with embracing instability.”
Shenk (2014) p. 185
First, you should clearly establish or validate the need to use both
types of delivery – online and classroom – in the same class sections. If
you find that there is no solid justification for delivering instruction in
both modes at the same time, with the same general set of resources,
then perhaps HyFlex isn’t a good choice. The type of justification
needed to move forward depends on the scope of the implementation
being considered. The justification for an individual instructor may be
quite simple (at minimum, instructor interest or preference) and
perhaps that’s solid enough for a very limited project. However, if an
entire program or institution is considering implementing HyFlex in
many (or all) courses, the justification may include a market analysis,
thorough literature review, consultation with experts, and the
engagement of an instructional design team.
Of course, considering the value that you can expect from HyFlex is
only one side of the analysis. You also need to determine how much
implementing HyFlex is going to cost various stakeholders. A few key
“costs” to consider:
Once you’ve looked at both sides of this comparison, you may need to
weight various factors to help you decide if and how to proceed with
HyFlex. Every situation will have its own set of context factors and
weighted variables to consider. In the end, most cases of HyFlex
implementation are also cases of organization change and require
effective change management strategies. See Chapter 2.4. Expanding
the Implementation of Hybrid-Flexible Courses within the Institution
for more on change-related factors of implementation.
Defining HyFlex
A simple definition like this one from San Francisco State may be all
that is required.
We’ve found that there are four main ways students register for
HyFlex courses that most institutions use: 1) students register for a
HyFlex course as they would any classroom-based course (no HyFlex
difference), 2) students register in either a fully online or a classroom-
based section of the same course – with sections combined (in the
scheduling system) into one larger official class section, 3) students
register in either a fully online or a classroom-based section of the
same course – with sections combined in the LMS to create an
“unofficial” larger class section, and 4) institution creates a new
HyFlex course type in the registration system to accommodate
scheduling flexibility while following the business rules adopted by
the institution.
1. No difference
Class scheduling systems may have the ability to support adding new
class formats that have unique scheduling parameters and that could
Sample class note: * Marketing 431 sections 1, 2 and 3 are the same
class. Students enrolled in any one of these sections may take it as an
online course or as a traditional course.
Once a class begins, some students will need very specific guidance
about how and when to interact online with content, the instructor,
and with other students. Instructors should have a detailed
explanation of protocols and expectations ready to distribute and
available in multiple places as appropriate for their situation. For
example, most formal classes will use a syllabus and participation
expectations should be included in that document. HyFlex classes will
use a course website, and the participation expectations might be
highlighted on the main page of the website in some way. Weekly
agendas and discussion forum prompts are also excellent places to
include specific participation expectations for that week, topic, or
activity.
Regrettably, some students will not change their practice, even if they
“appreciate” the value they are missing. This is a problem common to
every course I’ve experienced, unfortunately. In this way, the HyFlex
experience is the same as any other course experience; dependent on
the volition of students to participate actively.
In the case reports in Unit III you may find examples of another
common compensation approach: The “Unique Local Approach”.
Every institution has the ability to create their own compensation
approach based on the specifics of the situation. Your solution may be
You may also have special access instructions for using other
instructional resources that vary from mode to mode. If you are
providing hard copies of readings or handouts in class and you expect
online students to access these as well (synchronously in session or
asynchronously at any other time), how will they do that? You’ll need
to consider copyright requirements, digitizing media, creating
accessible documents, and perhaps more. Clearly, the more consistent
the use of resources across all modes, the simpler this will be – both
for your students and for instructors and designers.
We’ve seen the most significant need for faculty support in learning
how to teach effectively online, which includes designing engaging
online content and interactive experiences for students in all
participation modes. Because the HyFlex faculty isn’t giving up the
traditional teaching environment (in the classroom, normally), s/he
can continue to work in that context, which is normally a strength. For
many faculty new to HyFlex, the main challenge is learning to teach
online effectively, especially developing skills in interacting with
online learners through various internet communication technologies
(ICT). Presenting information is not normally a new challenge,
especially with the extensive use of digital media files, presentation
notes, and lecture capture solutions that become easier to use each
year.
If motivated and engaged faculty are provided with good design ideas,
usable technology, positive experiences both learning and teaching
online, and an ongoing community to support their development as
HyFlex instructors, they can do this successfully.
[Note: This short story was written by a HyFlex faculty shortly after a
weather-related campus closure event a few years ago. The same
scenario has played out several times in the ensuing years.]
What is a faculty to do? If you have a HyFlex class, you can simply
require all your students to meet online for that session. This works
well if they all have network access, the tools and ability to participate
in the online mode, and the time to do so. In our graduate program,
it’s never been a problem.
I’m sure being forced into the online asynchronous mode was not
convenient or simple for some students, but it was better than missing
out on up to 10% of the content of their course. Graduate students,
perhaps more than many undergraduates, often want to get as much
as possible from their course experiences, since they are often paying
dearly, in time and other resources.
There was still some difficulty, since while the campus power was off
It’s nice when things work out well, even when unplanned events
drive a change in plans. And in our geography (San Francisco Bay
Area), being able to recover quickly from an unplanned event (such as
a major earthquake) that could close our campus for days or weeks is
very important.
References
CAST.org (nd.) About Universal Design for Learning. Accessed online
on August 20, 2019 at http://www.cast.org/
Brian J. Beatty
Brian J. Beatty
“Diffusion is the process by which (1) an innovation (2) is communicated through certain channels (3)
over time (4) among the members of a social system.”
Rogers (2003) pg 11.
Figure 1
1. The Innovation
a. Relative advantage
b. Compatibility
c. Complexity
d. Trialability
e. Observability
2. Communication Channels
a. Interpersonal channels
b. Heterophily - membership in diverse groups (enabling
the cross-pollination of ideas)
3. Time
a. Innovation decision process
b. Adopter categories
4. A Social System
a. Social structure
b. System norms
c. Opinion leaders and change agents
d. Decision types
e. Consequences
Table 1
Category - (high
Category - classic Defining Description
technology)
Developers or
discoverers of
innovative practices;
First Adopters Innovators (Techies) always looking for a
new way to do
something, sometimes
even better!
Sponsors of initial
projects; in higher
education, these are
often Program
Coordinators,
Early Adopters Visionaries Department Chairs,
Deans, Provosts. These
people often have
resources (budget,
policy interpretation) to
support innovation.
It takes more than just a good idea to bring about change, especially
with the majority of faculty. Communication about, around and within
a new idea is just as important as the good idea itself. When HyFlex
delivery is applied in the right situations, it is a good idea. When
HyFlex is implemented thoughtfully, it becomes approachable even to
pragmatic faculty. But that’s not enough to facilitate widespread
change.
Why change? Pragmatic faculty change their practice when they see
a groundswell of support and evidence of success in a new practice.
When many of their peers adopt a new practice, pragmatic faculty
tend to go along with the crowd. Conservative faculty change their
practice when it becomes harder to continue with their old ways than
it is to adopt an innovation. In the case of Hyflex delivery, if students
and other key stakeholders (administrators, research funders, etc.)
start requesting flexible delivery options – because they want the real
value they see elsewhere – it may become hard to resist.
First adopters can only take a new practice so far; they typically do
not have the opportunity or authority to implement a new practice in
any significant way. Visionaries, on the other hand, are able to initiate
(sponsor) and implement an innovation that makes a difference in
some part of the organization that they have influence within.
The key is to recognize that your faculty will not just jump at an
innovative practice because someone, even someone with a high
formal position, says, “this is a good idea and we should try it.” This
group waits until they see evidence that the innovation is likely to
work for them, and they hear that message from people whom they
trust.
Late majority adopters are often the more conservative people in the
organization, at least when it comes to the innovation being
considered. Members of this group are often heavily invested in the
status quo practice and are very reluctant to change. They may be
extremely risk averse, too. Conservatives don’t generally trust the
early adopters, and may only slightly more trust the pragmatists in the
early majority.
“Why should I change? What I’ve been doing [for the past many years]
has worked and still works. I don’t want to do things differently. It
may be good for others, but I’d prefer to keep doing things the same
way, thank you very much!”
In the realm of faculty support for course design and practice, we’ve
found that many conservative faculty don’t really trust the idea of
HyFlex – yet! Our continuing challenge is to build a value proposition
that they can’t ignore. Shrinking instructional budgets, transparent
and detailed student success data, and growing student demand for
scheduling options may raise the felt pain to levels even conservatives
cannot endure without considering other instructional approaches.
The bottom line for this adoption group is that they are not likely to
change, and that’s that. As a change agent, you may have more
success in isolating the impact of their refusal to innovate rather than
continuing to try to help them make the change.
The message you use to help others adopt should vary based on their
perceptions of risk, reward (value) and the behavior of their peers. A
common message to all groups at once is likely to work only with 1-2
groups, at best. Many monolithic broadcast messages (which
administrators love to send as emails to all faculty) end up being
Table 2
Risk General
Adoption Group HyFlex Context
Tolerance Messaging
References
Moore, G. A. (1991). Crossing the chasm: Marketing and selling
technology products to mainstream customers. New York, N.Y.:
HarperBusiness.
Suggested Citation
Brian J. Beatty
Lastly, if you know of other work that should be included here, please
use the comment area below this chapter (on the
edtechbooks.org/hyflex site) or contact me by other means.
Abstract
Relevance
This study was the first to report the results from a HyFlex course
implementation (using the HyFlex term specifically) and focused on
Abstract
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Abstract
Relevance
This study reports the HyFlex course design used at two campuses of
an Australian university, emphasizing the design factors and
instructional practices implemented to assure student equity (given
the opportunity to achieve equivalent learning outcomes) and student
engagement in the learning process. Gathering information from
course (presumably LMS) logs and, most substantially, student
surveys, the study concludes that the design presented was effective
in achieving goals of student equity and engagement as defined by the
authors and reported by students.
Abstract
Relevance
The study also found that relatively few (28%) of students ever
changed participation mode during the course. It seems that these
students tended to find a preferred mode of participation and
continued in that mode for the duration of the course.
Abstract
Relevance
Abstract
Relevance
Abstract
Relevance
Suggested Citation
Rationale—Why Now?
Developing and deploying innovative, flexible, academic instructional
models supports the need to respond to a changing higher education
landscape. Innovation and institutional efficiency are and always have
been priorities at the Peirce College. During challenging times, the
college frequently turns to innovative delivery methods as a way of
meeting the students where they are and providing opportunities for
learning that are student-centric, fresh, and unique. In the early
1990s, the College was on the forefront of the online learning
paradigm, and in 2014, turned to innovation again as a way to bridge
the gap between course offerings, and declining retention and
persistence concerns, while creating sustainable enrollment.
Four years before the pilot, the College introduced three new
undergraduate health programs to its existing curriculum. Even
though enrollment in these programs grew, the on campus and online
sections were relatively small as a result of giving students an option
for delivery mode. The College saw this as an opportunity to explore
The Peirce Fit® model was conceived of and piloted before the
College’s knowledge of Beatty’s HyFlex model (EDUCAUSE, 2010).
While attending the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning
(CAEL) conference in November 2014, a faculty member learned
about the HyFlex model. Upon her return from the conference, she
shared the discovery of HyFlex with members of the College’s
executive leadership team responsible for managing the pilot and its
subsequent college-wide implementation. Discovery of the Hylex
model during the pilot phase was key to advancing the work of the
steering committee and the early adopters. Specifically, we looked to
the HyFlex principles of learner choice, equivalency, reusability, and
accessibility to guide how we set about transforming on campus only
and online only courses to Peirce Fit® courses. The principle of
equivalency informed how faculty set expectations for both groups of
students within a single course. Early versions of Peirce Fit®
included a weekly table denoting the course learning outcomes for a
given week and the assessment(s) for online and on-campus learners.
Implementation Process
The design of the Peirce Fit® model, originally termed FLEX,
originated from the work of the implementation team, which was
comprised of four subteams; Marketing & Communications,
Instruction, Faculty & Student Support, and Assessment. The
Instruction subteam was charged with:
Challenges
The implementation of Peirce Fit® across the College was not without
challenge, and we continue to refine aspects of the model as part of
our ongoing learning and refinement. The brevity of the pilot phase
created a sense of curiosity among the faculty as to the rationale for
implementing the Peirce Fit® model. Viewed as an opportunity to
engage faculty, two focus group sessions were held to garner
Table 1
Number of
Number of % of
Theme Coding
Words Coded total
References
Impact on
Teaching & 70 2,944 45%
Learning
Faculty Workload 32 1,306 20%
Attendance 13 634 10%
Flexibility 12 566 9%
Faculty
Understanding of 14 524 8%
Peirce Fit®
Technology 12 330 5%
Adjunct Faculty 7 180 3%
Total 160 6,484 100%
Table 2
The consolidated data were presented to the VPAA, and the following
recommendations were adopted:
Conclusion
The changing higher education landscape and inherent challenges
lead to faculty experimentation with an innovative hybrid delivery
model that would significantly alter how instruction is delivered at
this College. For students, the model would provide flexibility in how
they attended each class within a course, and for the College, the
model pointed toward real opportunities to improve operational
efficiency. Following a pilot study, this College decided to implement
the Peirce Fit® model with hopes to address challenges currently
being faced.
References
Suggested Citation
Stephanie Donovan
By Fall 2018, 68% of our student population was female, the average
age of our students continues to rise. Fall 2018 data show that 34% of
our students were age 25-34 with the average age of 27.9 years. Our
part-time student population is growing while full-time student
demand is decreasing. From Fall 2014 to Fall 2018, full-time student
enrollment decreased from 43% to 36% while part-time enrollment
rose from 57% to 64%. In addition, from Fall 2017 to fall 2018,
although a low number, we experienced a decline in demand for
degrees and certifications and an increase in non-degree seeking
students. Students taking any online class rose 13.8% between Fall
2014 and Fall 2018 (36% of all students in Fall 2018). And, students
attending fully online rose 14.2% during the same period (13% of all
students in Fall 2018). Importantly, although Delgado has a presence
on average in 20 states, 68% of students enrolled and attending at the
main City Park campus live close to the campus. 85% of students
attending our West Bank campus live near the campus. The data show
that HyFlex course design is a good fit for Delgado Community
College and may become an important part of our course delivery and
marketing strategies.
During the Fall 2014 semester, two instructional designers and one
assistant dean from Delgado Community College’s Business and
Technology Division met to discuss the merits of adopting the use of
the HyFlex delivery model for business courses. The Business
department was already employing a space-sharing model for their
hybrid courses. Typically but not exclusively, at our institution hybrid
delivery requires students to attend one day face-to-face (F2F) and the
rest online. Unlike the flipped classroom model, the day that students
meet face-to-face was not necessarily lecture-free. Face-to-face
classes are scheduled (1) Monday and Wednesday (2) Tuesday and
Thursday. For our HyFlex model, two different classes were scheduled
in the same room during the same time slot on different days, one day
each week. This meant that the number of students served in the
classroom raised to a maximum of 50 from 25 for two courses. Had
the additional two courses (four sections) in the HyFlex pilot shared
the same timeslot, this would have raised the physical space gain
overall from 150 to 300 seats. The pilot was conducted on the
institution’s West Bank campus, which has a four-day work week
Monday - Thursday. Please see Table 1 below.
Table 1
· 1 room · 1 room
· 25 seats · 25 seats
· 1 class meets Tues and Thurs · 1 class meets on Tues
· 1 class meets on Thursday
Number of students served = 25 Number of students served = 50
students students
Since 2017, all courses in the Business programs are delivered as fully
online, F2F, and hybrid options per term. Students may also register
for 8-week terms rather than 16-weeks. In other words, students have
the option to register for "full term" courses (16-weeks) or "shorter-
term" courses (8-weeks). The 8-week option provides additional
flexibility to students by enabling sequential or concurrent completion
of courses. Furthermore, the sequential option allows students to
register for courses in the second 8-weeks as a result of completing
a related pre-requisite course in the first 8-weeks of the semester.
Another way the team expected to see the impact of HyFlex delivery,
is increased student enrollment over time. Often, online classes fill up
first leaving students with only F2F and hybrid options. The more
HyFlex offerings we have, the more access to the online mode we can
provide to students needing flexibility, which should lead to a greater
number of students enrolling overall. Ideally, we can cross-list or pair
face-to-face and online classes in the Learning Management System
(LMS), Canvas as appropriate to provide more participation flexibility
to students.
By 2018, the focus on course design and delivery shifted from HyFlex
course delivery to incorporating Open Educational Resources (OER)
and other affordable learning initiatives. Helping faculty create,
adapt, or adopt OER exposed not only a College support need, but a
System-wide support need. There are not enough instructional
designers at institutions to help faculty create OER courses. As a
result, with LCTCS funding, a Fundamentals of Instructional Design
course was created and taught to LCTCS faculty and staff during the
2018-2019 academic year. Within the course, HyFlex was promoted as
a multimodal course design model. We refer to it as multimodal
In early 2015, we also submitted a proposal for grant funding from the
Louisiana Board of Regents to pilot HyFlex at Delgado. This grant
provided compensation for the faculty and course designers. In
Implementation
The faculty involved in the HyFlex pilot were asked to think about the
vision for their course, the merits of each delivery mode, and how
students benefit most from each learning environment. We agreed
that some activities may be adapted for both environments. An
excerpt of delivery mode benefits follows in Table 2.
Table 2
Face-to-Face Online
Our goal was to make activities and assessments for each week
similar regardless of the delivery mode. Webcams, microphones, and
software were provided to the faculty piloting HyFlex. Software such
as Screencast-o-matic and Big Blue Button for recorded lecture were
provided for faculty to easily narrate lectures. In 2016 we began to
add touchscreens to the classroom lecterns to facilitate live
annotation of presentations. Basic and advanced Canvas LMS training
was provided to faculty. In addition, a self-paced course about HyFlex
course design was created. Figure 1 shows an index of content in the
introductory module in the HyFlex course design course. Other course
information included HyFlex teaching best practices, HyFlex course
and management best practices. The faculty HyFlex checklist was
suggested but not completed. Tips for faculty were created and listed
later in this chapter. This course was not well-attended by faculty and
is now under revision.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 8
Early in the term and throughout, the faculty met with students to
demonstrate how the online portion of the class works. The faculty
planned to create an online HyFlex student orientation. To date, the
orientation has not been created. As faculty and instructional
designers collaborated in developing HyFlex courses, the following
were found to be helpful HyFlex faculty tips:
It also takes additional time to test and revise, as needed, the new
activities. As stated earlier in the chapter, when we piloted HyFlex we
had just transitioned from being a Blackboard LMS institution to a
Canvas by Instructure institution. The adoption of the Canvas LMS
and use of the Mastery Paths feature, provided an easier way to
During Spring 2019, two faculty members, one who teaches history
and the other English, started to plan implementation of HyFlex in
their Summer 2019 courses. This is the first extension beyond the
business faculty. The two instructors presented a HyFlex session
during the 2019 Delgado Summer Institute. They shared that they
experience difficulty in finding classrooms with working podiums
(many had audio issues or camera issues). Although the College has
webcams in over 100 classrooms, there is still some work needed to
add similar technology to more College classrooms on all College
sites. In addition, we need to improve how we communicate to faculty
what resources are available to them and how to use the resources.
The College has two hi-tech, multipurpose classrooms setup
specifically to stream lectures to two or more different locations at the
same time. The multipurpose classroom at the main campus has two
microphone arrays and a high-resolution robotic camera that tracks
the lecturer. The goal is to provide one hi-tech classroom per campus
or site for live streaming and lecture recording for on-demand viewing
or reviewing. The College provides three applications for recording
lectures. Hands-on trainings is offered to faculty multiple times per
year.
Impact
In summary, our HyFlex program is achieving college goals as
demonstrated by the information and examples provided in the
previous sections and summarized below:
The first HyFlex modules were introduced to students near the end of
the Fall 2015 term. The business computer applications course, held
in a computer classroom, piloted two content modules of Microsoft
™Excel in three sections. Feedback surveys from the computer
application course students reported that they were excited by the
option of choice but most preferred to attend in the F2F format. As
the computer application course was transitioning from a flipped
classroom, lab format, students may have preferred attending in-
person in order to access to classroom computers to complete course
work. One of the greatest take-aways for Dr. McClean, who piloted a
marketing course and a management course, was the positive
Table 4
# % # %
A 11 9 82% 2 18%
B 19 15 79% 4 21%
C 22 16 73% 6 27%
Students say they love the option; the ability to keep up if they
missed class; do not feel abandoned as they do with many
online classes
“It allowed me to accomplish my career goals by helping me
take advantage of real-world opportunities I could not have if I
had been attending a traditional course”
“I am able to graduate more quickly and keep up with my full-
time job”
“I am battling combat-related illnesses…opportunity to make up
Figure 9
References
Carone, K. (2008). Characteristics of adult learners with implications
for online learning design. AACE Journal 16(2), pp. 137-159.
Suggested Citation
Jeanne C. Samuel
The University of St. Thomas offered its first fully HyFlex course
during the summer of 2017, in an initiative called “Take St. Thomas
Home for the Summer.” Business school leaders were interested in
supporting instructional innovation and new course delivery models,
and a finance instructor agreed to try the HyFlex model in his
undergraduate course.
In 2016 the St. Thomas eLearning and Research group (STELAR) was
created in order to provide internal instructional design and online
course design and development services as we phased out our
relationship with the OPM. In addition to migrating those special
education courses into the university’s instructional technology
environment, during the summer of 2017, STELAR staff worked with
faculty to develop a portfolio of online courses in an initiative called
Take St. Thomas home for the Summer. Through this initiative, we
developed and offered FINC 321 in the HyFlex model of course
delivery as a proof of concept.
Why?
Our development of HyFlex courses started in the Opus College of
Business, where the academic leadership team wanted to better use
technology to support instructional innovation and new attendance
models. At the 2016 OLC Innovate conference, several attendees from
the business college attended a panel, “Hybrid Flexible Course and
Program Design: Models for Student-Directed Hybrids,” and liked how
HyFlex maximized student choice. Discussions ensued about offering
HyFlex graduate courses in a new business analytics program. One
instructor in the program taught his courses using the classroom and
web-conferencing components of this model as a proof of concept
during the 2016-17 academic year and found that students liked the
ability to choose their attendance modality from week-to-week. He
was surprised to find that the group of students who attended online
changed from week to week. He also reported that one student -- who
was typically in class – experienced a minor car accident on her way
to class one evening, and was able to attend class remotely online
What?
Our approach is still evolving and is fragmented at times as we work
to apply the model to various courses and programs. While STELAR
has shared information about HyFlex in various university
communications and conference presentations, no formal goals or
directives have been developed by the Office of the Provost other than
promoting this as an instructional innovation through funding faculty
course development grants.
For the purposes of this chapter, we will focus on our first official
HyFlex course, FINC 321, as it served as a proof of concept both for
the use of online and classroom technologies, and will describe how
this is informing subsequent courses and programs.
One to two students were paid to assist during each class period,
helping with set-up, monitoring the Zoom chat and reminding
students to use the Catch Box microphone when speaking. They also
controlled the wall-mounted classroom camera with a joystick to
improve the quality of the video capture when the instructor moved
around. One of these student assistants was enrolled in the course
and their salaries were paid out of the business school’s workstudy
budget.
The video and images below help to illustrate how these technologies
worked together.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Classroom Technologies
Instructor Technologies
Figure 4
Several pedagogical changes were made during the second FINC 321
offering. VoiceThread is a supported tool on our campus. Rather than
participating in a text-based discussion board for participation points,
asynchronous students were required to create a short VoiceThread
video presentation in response to instructor prompts.
This change was made to more closely model the classroom pedagogy
which required students to verbally support their positions in
response to instructor prompts and questions. Per the instructor, this
change resulted in a “dramatic improvement in engaging online
students”. Changes made in classroom delivery included a deliberate
effort to increase engagement of synchronous students in the lecture
and discussion through better integration of Zoom. The instructor
also worked to improve the quality of the videos through increased
Figure 5
Learner Choice
Figure 6
Canvas Modules
Implementation Issues
Structure of the Model
Technology
Equivalency
Data Collection
Impact
Increased Enrollment
Our initial goal was simply to successfully deliver a HyFlex course for
the first time with approximately equivalent student learning
outcomes while increasing summer term enrollment. This goal was
Figure 7
Student Satisfaction
Figure 8
Mode of Participation
Consistent with the instructor report, technical glitches were few with
more than half of the students reporting no glitches and only one
student reporting many.
Figure 11
The success of the HyFlex model in our pilot has garnered the
attention of other programs and we are currently expanding hyflex
delivery as well as a variation termed ‘co-location’ into the college of
education.
University Recognition
Conclusion
Instructor Quote: “The critical thing to remember is that the
technology is just a more effective and efficient means to our same
desired end - a great educational experience, not in any way a
replacement for engaged faculty with a well thought-out pedagogy”
Our HyFlex experience has been successful above and beyond our
initial expectations. With the right support, a dedicated and talented
instructor can deliver a course that meets students where they are
and how they learn. The HyFlex FINC 321 pilot served as a proof of
concept that allowed us to build and adapt on this model so that it can
be integrated into other courses and programs. Both interest and
implementation of HyFlex and its variants are growing with our first
full program converting to this model and other programs We now
have an entire program that will convert all of their courses to HyFlex
and other programs that will initially use a variation of the model. We
expect further growth due to student interest and initial successes.
References
Lieberman, M. (2018, January 24). Introducing a new(-ish) learning
mode: Blendflex/hyflex. Inside Higher Ed.Retrieved from
https://edtechbooks.org/-pww
Suggested Citation
Glori Hinck
Note to our readers: This chapter is the work of both authors but is
presented as a first-person narrative. Jack has been using the HyFlex
model since 2011 and tells the story from their perspective. Melinda
has been contributing to and consulting on Jack’s work since it was
introduced at Michigan in 2014. Since Jack is the “user” of the model,
we decided to present this chapter from Jack’s point of view.
In Stats 412, HyFlex means that students can attend class in person
or remotely while class meetings are happening. It is important that
students have equivalent learning opportunities regardless of how
they attend lecture. The experience of attending class in person or
remotely should also be fairly seamless for students—they should be
able to make their choice about attendance mode based on what is
best for them on each day. Students should not have to decide when
they register for class that they want to attend solely in person or
solely remotely for the entire term. The flexibility of daily choice
The details given to the students for the Winter (known elsewhere as
Spring) 2019 semester are included at the end of this chapter.
Live Streaming
Backchannel
Workload Creep
One of the original reasons that I started using the HyFlex model was
so that I could teach more students without taking up more physical
classroom space. Historically, I have allowed more and more students
to take my classes as wait lists far exceeded available spots, and my
enrollments at OSU increased from 50 to 200 students per lecture
section, with similar increases at UM. The toll this takes on
instructors and graders is not minimal. More students enrolled means
more homework assignments and more exams to grade—I have
graders for the homework, but I choose to grade the exams myself.
However, more than the extra grading, it’s the barrage of email
messages, alternate accommodations, special office hour demands,
etc.—in essence, the increased psychological and cognitive load—that
come from the increased number of students that has led me to cap
my enrollment at UM. Unlike with our large introductory statistics
course, there is no administrative help for Stats 412, so all emails are
handled by me as the instructor. And, in this digital age, it appears
that students are more likely to send a quick email to ask a question
than they are to look up the information in the syllabus (e.g., “when is
the exam?” or “can I turn this homework assignment in late?”). This
Since students really like the HyFlex opportunities they have at UM,
certainly it has taken off as an instructional model, right?
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. As far as I know, HyFlex has
not caught on at UM in the same way it did at OSU. The large
introductory course at UM that I initially introduced HyFlex in does
use HyFlex for exam reviews, but no other statistics courses use the
model. It is quite possible that some other instructors in other
departments are live streaming their lectures in the lecture halls that
have the streaming technology and that I am unaware of it.
Try HyFlex!
Utilizing the HyFlex model in my statistics courses, both at OSU and
at UM, has been extremely rewarding. By engaging in HyFlex
techniques, I am able to provide my students with continuous choice
of class attendance and help to encourage them to take ownership of
their own learning. As a faculty member and educational instructor,
my ultimate goal is, of course, for students to learn the material and
be able to apply it in their other courses and work. If students aren’t
able to attend class or ask questions, they may quickly fall behind and
have difficulty catching up. Even the best students may have this
happen. Especially as students advance in their educational careers,
the demands on their time can become overwhelming, and non-major
courses, although vital, take a back seat to job interviews and
capstone projects. A rigid course structure would pit these various
elements at odds with one another and would force such students to
choose between which lecture(s) they would attend that week. I
believe we should be supporting our students in their aspirations, not
If you read this chapter, you are at least interested in the HyFlex
model—that’s great! I think HyFlex is an excellent way to offer our
students choice and flexibility in their learning. I encourage you to
talk to your instructional technology (IT) support staff about what
HyFlex would look like for you. There are many options for streaming
and for the backchannel, some of which might already be available at
your school. Additionally, you may be able to find ways to incorporate
aspects of HyFlex in your teaching even if your school does not
already have certain technologies available. HyFlex can be
implemented in a variety of ways at any course level for just about all
course subjects, so I encourage you to get creative and try it out!
Miller, J.B., Risser, M.D., and Griffiths, R.P. (May 2013). Student
Choice, Instructor Flexibility: Moving Beyond the Blended
Instructional Model. Issues and Trends in Educational Technology, 1
(1), https://edtechbooks.org/-Hks.)
Melanie Lefebvre
To further set the stage, it’s worth noting that not only was I
embarking on a new journey as a full-time faculty, but I was also the
Why HyFlex?
Cambrian College is located in Northern Ontario, also known as the
city of lakes, making it a beautiful destination for students. With
HyFlex delivery it’s now a destination that does not require students
to move to Sudbury (even if this means missing out on our 300 plus
lakes). Currently, HyFlex is available in Cambrian post-graduate
certificate programs. Some faculty outside of the post-graduate
certificate programs teach using a hybrid model of delivery while
other courses are offered entirely online.
Housing HyFlex
Before working towards achieving my goals for the inaugural cohort
of students, I needed to understand the logistics of how HyFlex
delivery could occur. Cambrian had virtual classrooms prepared to
videostream classes in real-time, which would then be uploaded
afterwards. Cambrian had a couple of technological options to make
this a reality, with Zoom being the platform I opted to utilize. The
selling points for me were the various features such as having the
autonomy to upload my lecture independently at my discretion, which
Support
Without The Hub, I don’t know where I would have started (well,
perhaps I would have found Dr. Beatty earlier). Not only was technical
support readily available, but so was a tutorial created by The Hub
team for those venturing into the world of HyFlex delivery. But it
wasn’t just me teaching within my program. As the coordinator for a
brand new program, it was important for me to stay connected with
the part-time faculty who would also be teaching in the program. My
own experience of feeling initial terror of HyFlex, coupled with my
experience of working full-time as a mental health worker while
teaching part-time helped me empathize with the jitters they too,
were likely experiencing. I created a shared folder online with
additional resources should faculty choose to learn more, because,
well, technology can be intimidating, with one of the resources
containing helpful responses from Dr. Brian Beatty via our email
correspondence:
The Outcome
While I may not have official data to present, I do have anecdotal
evidence of success. Firstly, of the 21 students of the inaugural
cohort, all 21 graduated. My goal was to ensure I put the students
first regardless of their chosen delivery format. Putting the student
first was important because I wanted future career opportunities to be
realistic for all students, regardless of their chosen delivery method. It
was my intention that regardless of whether students were in class,
joining synchronously or viewing the class afterwards, they would
have the appropriate skills to help future clients navigate complex
systems. I'm excited to share that many students across modalities of
delivery have obtained meaningful employment, which I’m defining as
employment in a helping-related profession. Some students were
hired at the same agency where they completed their field placement.
Some students chose to continue their studies in a similar helping-
related profession (e.g. Social Services), while others chose an
unrelated educational path.
References
Elder, S. J. (2018). Multi-Options: An Innovative Course Delivery
Methodology. Nursing
Small Numbers
Assignment Ideas
Asynchronous Students
Tech Tips
Feedback
Get unofficial feedback - both mid and end term - from them in
addition to what the college does - lets them know you value
their input.
Suggested Citation
Melanie Lefebvre
In 2015, Montana State University Billings sent two faculty from the
Sociology department to the e-Learn Conference. It was from this
event that we first became aware of the HyFlex teaching format. At
the conference the format was branded a “true hybrid,” and our e-
Learning staff rejected this singular interpretation of hybrid design.
Despite the intriguing student-centered possibilities of HyFlex
gleaned from the conference, no one from our e-Learning office
followed up with the participating faculty or further researched the
possibilities of HyFlex, in part due to the perception that the faculty
had too narrow a vision of hybrid teaching.
Luckily, one of the faculty members who attended the conference, Dr.
Joy Honea, did not lose her enthusiasm despite the tepid reception she
received from our staff. During the fall semester of 2017, she reached
out to see if there was faculty development money available to
support her travel to a conference to learn more about HyFlex. Unable
to locate an upcoming conference with HyFlex on the program, the
Director of e-Learning, Dr. Sue Balter-Reitz, began researching
During the visit, Dr. Beatty arranged for our team to meet with faculty
who taught HyFlex courses for SFSU. This was incredibly valuable;
the experience that these faculty shared helped us to understand the
diversity of options available for structuring a HyFlex course. These
conversations also helped ease our faculty’s apprehension about the
workload associated with HyFlex, including the concern that faculty
would be teaching two courses for the price of one, and that HyFlex
would allow administrations to overload course enrollments. Dr.
Beatty, and the faculty who spoke to our team, emphasized two
crucial points: 1) HyFlex design begins with a solid online course
design and 2) the additional work for faculty is in the design phase
and not in the teaching of the HyFlex course.
The visit was a successful in that all four faculty who had the
opportunity to interact with the SFSU team returned to MSUB highly
Piloting HyFlex
Immediately upon our return to campus, we began working with the
administration and the unions to start a small pilot in Fall 2018. The
Faculty Association included the HyFlex pilot on its agenda, and it
was in these meetings that we hammered out an agreement on how to
compensate faculty for HyFlex. All parties agreed that we needed to
ensure that our HyFlex sections were well-designed so as to ensure
student success and retention. As a result, the administration agreed
to provide a stipend for faculty to complete faculty development
courses in both online and hybrid course design. This was a first for
MSUB as we have no required faculty development programs for
teaching anywhere on campus. Additionally, the administration
agreed to a stipend for course design equivalent to the stipend for
online course development. The MTYCFA, who meet separately from
the Faculty Association, were willing to abide by the agreement made
by the Faculty Association.
Three of the original four faculty who visited SFSU developed courses
for the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters. These three courses
provided a strong basis for evaluating the possibility of HyFlex. The
courses: BGEN 105: Introduction to Business SOC 482: Contemporary
Sociological Theory and COMX 435: Media Criticism, serve very
different student populations. The Introduction to Business Class is
taught at City College and is geared for beginning students.
Sociological Theory was an online class for majors that was converted
to HyFlex at the request of the students, who were all on campus
majors. Media Criticism, which is a course that is taught at both the
undergraduate and graduate level in the Communication department,
is a course for experienced students. Communication offers courses
both fully online and on campus, so the enrollment in this course was
guaranteed to provide insight into the mix of onsite and distance
I received a stipend to develop the course and took to heart the best
practices taught by Dr. Beatty and the other faculty at SFSU. The
design phase of the course was relatively straight-forward. I learned
quickly that communication with students about their participation
options each week was going to be challenging, especially because
many of our students do not consistently use the email assigned to
them through our learning management system, Brightspace. I
learned that when piloting HyFlex, an instructor committed to
intentional design best practices should strongly consider how best to
Once my students got used to how the course looked different from
on-campus or hybrid sections, they seemed to grasp the flexibility
afforded to them. Of course, those students who were able to attend
on-campus were able to have their questions answered in real-time by
me, which proved to be advantageous to them. I perceived that all of
the students in the class intuitively grasped how HyFlex worked after
the first three weeks. After that initiation stage, I determined that I
had three different types of students in the class: the majority (60%)
were exclusively online; 30% were exclusively on-campus; and 10% or
so were participating both online and on-campus.
A second issue that arose was that faculty who were not part of the
pilot, but had heard about HyFlex, began to announce they were
offering HyFlex sections. This raises concerns about quality within
these rogue HyFlex courses. One of the lessons this campus learned
during its growth of online is that it’s important to provide students
with a consistent experience within a given modality. It would be a
shame for the HyFlex project to be undermined by faculty who do not
have a well-designed and executed course. In order to ensure
excellence, we will need to collaborate with deans and department
During Fall 2019, the three faculty members who participated in the
pilot, along with the Director of e-Learning and the Vice Provost, will
host an open forum for faculty interested in being part of the launch
of HyFlex in 2020. We are not sure what this launch will look like, but
we are excited about the possibilities for our university.
We are grateful to Dr. Beatty and the faculty of San Francisco State
University for introducing us to this transformative teaching format.
References
Suggested Citation
Zahira Merchant
I have noticed one primary benefit and I offer two important cautions
for those considering a HyFlex approach in their courses.
LMS integration
Suggested Citation
Zahira Merchant
Zahira Merchant is an Associate Professor of Instructional
Technologies Program at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She
received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Emphasis in Education
Technology) and MS in Educational Human Resource Development
from Texas A&M University. Dr. Merchant has served as the PI, Co-PI,
Senior Personnel on several federally and non-profit funded grant
projects from agencies such as National Science Foundation (NSF),
California Teaching Commission (CTC), and IDEA. Before joining SF
State, she was the project manager and postdoctoral research
associate of an NSF project studying the effects of using 3-D virtual
Figure 1
1. Flexible organization
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Teachers’ Experiences
Although it is a big advantage that the teacher can see the remote
students, one teacher indicated that she often had to make her
students aware that they are visible and that they should behave as if
they were in the physical classroom. Some students, for example, start
eating during the course and others did not choose the most
appropriate background. This teacher suggested that we provide
students with some basic behavior and visual awareness rules as
‘digital etiquette’, in addition to providing the basic technical
requirements for participation.
All teachers express that they have the intention to use the hybrid
virtual classroom in the future. One teacher specially mentions
looking forward to use the newest features in the platform, such as,
organizing break-out sessions during synchronous virtual teaching.
Teachers told us that some students were very skeptical about the
new format of EDU as they thought the model would harm them if
they chose to follow the course remotely. One student even shared her
complaints by email with the teacher as her personal situation forced
her to follow the course remotely and she thought this would be a
disadvantage for her. The teacher testifies that now, this student is
one of the most enthusiastic students in her course even though she
participates remotely.
Table 1
• Teachers can naturally interact with on-site and • Remote students are projected on the screens in
remote students as both are visible. the back of the classroom as they are the last row
in the classroom. This makes them part of the
• The teachers do not have to bother about classroom.
his/her position, as the virtual room director
follows the teacher. • Remote students can select different viewpoints.
• Multiple options for interaction make it easier to • Multiple options for interaction make it easier to
know if your students are still engaged. stay motivated during lessons.
Design Guidelines
Based on the experiences of the teachers and students who used the
hybrid virtual classroom and based on the academic research results,
we formulated five design guidelines for teaching in the hybrid virtual
classroom. These guidelines are also printed on a poster that was
hung in the hybrid virtual classroom, so teachers would have a
constant reminder in their field of view.
Conclusion
We strongly believe that educational institutions, including
universities, should embrace technology as the implementation can
offer opportunities for innovative teaching approaches and supports
the current societal transitions. Our hybrid virtual classroom is found
to be a teaching and learning facilitator that support multi-location
learning and enables people, at any stage of their life, to take part in
stimulating learning experiences. Yet, to ensure that innovative
projects can be scaled up and be implemented university-wide, a well
thought-out policy is required dealing with both pedagogical and
technical challenges.
References
Beatty, B. J. (2019). Hybrid-Flexible Course Design: Implementing
student-directed hybrid classes (1st ed.). EdTech Books. Retrieved
from https://edtechbooks.org/hyflex
Raes, A.1, Vanneste P.1, Pieters, M., Windey, I., Van Den Noortgate, W.
& Depaepe, F. (2020). Learning and instruction in the hybrid virtual
classroom: An investigation of students’ engagement and the effect of
quizzes. Computers & Education. https://edtechbooks.org/-
geRdoi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103682
Raes, A., Detienne, L., Windey, I., & Depaepe, F. (2019). A systematic
literature review on synchronous hybrid learning: gaps identified.
Learning Environments Research. https://edtechbooks.org/-IJV
Zydney, J. M., McKimm, P., Lindberg, R., & Schmidt, M. (2019). Here
or There Instruction: Lessons Learned in Implementing Innovative
Approaches to Blended Synchronous Learning. TechTrends, 63(2),
123–132. https://edtechbooks.org/-QoU
Suggested Citation
Raes, A., Pieters, M., & Bonte, P. (2019). Hyflex Learning within the
Master of Teaching Program@KU Leuven: KU LEUVEN, Belgium. In
B. J. Beatty (Ed.), Hybrid-Flexible Course Design. EdTech Books.
Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/hyflex/hyflex_MTP_KULeuven
Annelies Raes
Sincerely,
Bibliography of Hybrid-Flexible
Literature (using various
terms)
Brian J. Beatty
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classroom: An investigation of students’ engagement and the effect of
quizzes. Computers & Education, 143, (2020) 103682.
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Suggested Items
Suggested Citation
Brian J. Beatty