It’s one thing to design a HyFlex course, but it’s another thing to implement.

[Brian Beatty]

After carefully designing a HyFlex course – perhaps for the first time, the detailed work now turns to actually facilitating the instruction. To do this we need technology that works, we need policies that allow for flexibile participation, and we need students registered in these courses.

There are so many things to coordinate that it really does take a team effort to make this work. If you’re doing this for the first time at your institution and it’s only you or perhaps a small handful of faculty, you’ll have a lot of conversations to start with support staff, with technology staff, and perhaps with the Registrar’s office to make this work well.

In this discussion let’s talk about the things that we’ve done to make it work, beyond just designing a good course experience. Who have you had to recruit on your campus to help you with this implementation, especially beyond the academic staff? What have been the most difficult issues to resolve that you didn’t have direct control over?

• This topic was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Brian Beatty.

[Jeanne Samuel]

I am so glad you asked this question. I am going to start a technology post since I have not yet implemented this. But this topic intersects with this discussion and your conversation about flexibility and technology supports.

[Brian Beatty]

One of our most persistent issues over the years has been providing a consistently clear audio experience for students in class, online sync, and through the recording to asynchronous students. When we ask students about their experience in HyFlex courses, the most common technology problem they report is bad or inconsistent audio. So, when implementing HyFlex for the first time in our courses, or in a new location perhaps, getting the audio right is probably the highest priority from the technology side.

What do you think?

[Irene Cedillo]

I think there is an essential aspect beyond designing a good course experience and having the right technology. It is getting the students ready to participate and understand the scope of a Hyflex course: Are students aware of what a Hyflex course requires? Do students know how to manage their learning process in this modality? How do students interact and complete a task such as group assignments in Hyflex?

[Brian Beatty]

Irene, thanks for your comments. You are right, the student experience is impacted by their familiarity with the way a HyFlex course operates, the technologies being unused, and the decisions students have the opportunity to make. If they aren’t sure what each option provides and requires of them, they may be anxious and/or make poor learning participation choices that don’t work well for them.

And during the course, the teacher has to make sure that activities, especially ones as complex as group assignments, are well-understood by students so they can make participation choices (if applicable) and know how to participate effectively.

Brian

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