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Baska, thanks for your thought on this. I think two of the most important things institutions need to do to support HyFlex rollout, even in small cases, are 1) provide training for faculty so they know how to teach well (or can learn to teach well but are prepared to start now with some skills) and 2) prepare the technology environment for easy and effective capture of AV to support student learning and engagement. There are many other things that a good HyFlex implementation needs for the long term, but if you can start with supplying these 2, you are likely to have a successful start and you can address additional needs as you go.
David, I’ve found that asking my students what would help them learn better gives me a good list of improvements to make over time. For example, this semester they have been asking for more visible LMS structure around the due dates for assignments so they can better plan their class work. So I’m planning to add an assignment due date table in the LMS and add these dates to the LMS calendar. I don’t use the LMS calendar now (though I know I should) because of the extra time needed to set it up (I don’t use the formal “assignment” tool so dates aren’t automated). And the dates are clear (to me) in the syllabus and in the LMS course sections below. But students want something better for their quick review. So next term, I’ll add this to my courses.
I like it when they give me improvement ideas like this that I wouldn’t have considered on my own.
Nick, thanks for sharing the details of your institution’s approach. You make a very good point about the faculty training and preparation to use the equipment being as important as, or even more important than, the quality of the AV equipment itself. We need both to be prepared to support HyFlex. Good equipment, and adequate skill to use it well!
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
Hi Regina, at SFSU we do not have any specific faculty evaluation instruments for HyFlex courses. Our teaching effectiveness evaluation process is undergoing a major revision this year and next, so I think we’ll be deploying instruments that do have questions associated with modes of instruction that would be more useful for HyFlex situations than our current approach (focused solely on face to face instruction). Our new approach should fit all modes. We think that will work better for us than four different instruments (f2f, hybrid, HyFkex, online only). We shall see!
Lorelei, here’s the syllabus I used for this class in Spring 2020. In March of that year, I made major revisions to the schedule (due to COVID) when our lives were upended!
https://sfsu.box.com/s/mpp7zrdbi9e92rxbinzkdp3gi5rot8ql
Brian
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?
Lorelei, here’s a link to a PDF print of one of my HyFlex courses (graduate, education) from our LMS. The links may not be active, but you can get a sense of how I lay out the course. If you’d like to see the syllabus as well, let me know.
https://sfsu.box.com/s/mcc97kh74hxkk3o9hmj5xovmydnd5ik8
If you have any trouble accessing the file, please let me know that also!
Brian
Melanie, thank you for your words of wisdom here.
I found that when I started using HyFlex I had to give myself a lot of grace and be very patient with myself and with the students who were just starting this adventure with me. There were many times I know that my class was not run perfectly – pretty much in every mode. But we always managed to help students meet student learning outcomes and many of them would not have been able to participate had we not offered two or three different participation options for them.
So for us, good enough design is where we start and then we go on from there to make improvements incrementally over the class duration and as the class is taught from term to term. Incremental, continuous improvement can lead to a very high functioning, high quality course if you are patient 🙂
Melanie, thanks for sharing your positive feedback from students about their HyFlex experience. Do you also have anecdotes or quotes that express some of their frustrations with HyFlex? When I’ve asked students about their experience, most of the comments I received are highly positive. But there are always some students, in some situations, that tell me that the way that I am implementing HyFlex isn’t working all that well for them. These are often complex situations involving several factors, though not always. Some students just don’t like this approach! Thankfully, in my experience this is a relatively low number, 10-15% or less.
Melanie, at San Francisco State our HyFlex courses are quite varied. We follow our academic Senate policy definition which allows a lot of individualization by faculty for specific high flex classes.
“HyFlex courses are class sessions that allow students to choose whether to attend classes face-to-face or online, (e.g., synchronous, asynchronous, bichronous).”
Our two fundamental defining characteristics for high flex course are, 1) that there is a face-to-face and at least one online option available for students, and 2) that students are the ones making the choice about their participation patterns for every session of the class. We follow these requirements in all of our HyFlex courses.
Melanie, one thing I’ve tried to do recently is to make it even easier for of all my students, perhaps most intentionally the asynchronous students, to contact me to schedule meetings so that we can engage in meaningful conversations outside of the classroom. A tool I find useful is Calendly, which I’m able to use to integrate my online calendar and my zoom account so that students can click a link, see my schedule openings (in a preset range and schedule a short meeting with me. One click and we have an automatic meeting scheduled in our calendars, with remidner emails 🙂
Not only is it convenient, but it saves a lot of time trying to find the time to meet together. Effcicient!
