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Welcome to our December newsletter. This has been another very busy semester for many of us, without a doubt. The HyFlex Learning Community advisors and members have been presenting papers at international conferences, and facilitating workshops at conferences and for institutional cohorts, all while keeping up with their own teaching, designing, and research activities. A whirlwind indeed!
This newsletter highlights three upcoming events: the next HyFlex Learning Community HyFlex Course Design workshop, the HyFlex Collaborative Conference in June 2024, the next HyFlex Learning Community webinar on December 7 (on the topic of planning the next conference), and highlights several aspects of the research completed this year in the HyFlex community.
Upcoming Events:
1. HyFlex Learning Community Gathering (webinar)
Our next webinar is happening on December 7, 2023, from 9:00 am PT - 10:30 am PT. The movement toward hybrid and flexible teaching and learning has been accelerating in higher education worldwide in many places. The HyFlex Learning Community and the Academy for the Advancement of Teaching, Leadership, and Schools (AATLAS) at the University at Albany, NY launched the HyFlex Collaborative Conference in June 2023. Our second annual HyFlex Collaborative Conference is scheduled for June 27, 2024. In this webinar, we will review the theme and general plan for the 2024 conference, release the Call for Proposals, and discuss sponsorship opportunities. We will also reserve time for discussion of other HyFlex topics you may bring to the gathering. Please join us on Dec 7th! Register at Eventbrite to receive the webinar link: https://bit.ly/HLCgatheringDec23
2. HyFlex Course Design Workshop
Our next HyFlex Course Design workshop is scheduled for January 8-12, 2024. Seats are still available; contact hyflexlearning@gmail.com for discounted pricing for institutional groups of five or more. More information and the registration link are available at https://www.hyflexlearning.org/workshops/
3. Second Annual HyFlex Collaborative Conference
Our first HyFlex Collaborative held in June this past summer was a resounding success. We have already scheduled the Second Annual HyFlex Collaborative Conference for June 27, 2024. We are happy to be partnering with AACE for this conference, and more information will soon be available at https://aatlased.org/hyflex-collaborative/hyflex-collaborative-conference/. Expect the Call for Proposals to be released during our December Gathering webinar (see 1. above).
Please plan to join us next summer on June 27, 2024!
HyFlex in the News:
1. Will Hybrid Teaching Stick Around as the Pandemic Fades? (EdSurge - https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-10-19-will-hybrid-teaching-stick-around-as-the-pandemic-fades)
Jeffrey Young of EdSurge describes trends in some institutions in their uses of HyFlex (or other hybrid) approaches as the pandemic fades into the recent past. Some institutions are continuing - even accelerating their HyFlex approaches and others are moving back toward more mainstream models (traditional classroom and fully online without flexibility). David Rhoads, an HLC Advisor, is interviewed for his insights as well. As you read this, you'll need to consider how much of the pandemic-forced "HyFlex" teaching was really well-designed and intentional HyFlex. Much of it was not, unfortunately, and in places where the pandemic HyFlex solution was not well-implemented, it is probably best for them to return to their old ways of teaching. But for those faculty, design teams, administrators, and institutions that have realized the value of HyFlex in supporting student access and learning before and during the pandemic, their renewed efforts post-pandemic are already showing results. (see the HyFlex 2023 literature brief below for a few examples).
2. Introducing ByFlex Course Design: A Bimodal Flexible Course Model (Faculty Focus https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-delivery-and-instruction/introducing-byflex-course-design-a-bimodal-flexible-course-model/.
Kerri Shields describes several approaches to using two instructional (or learning) modes and providing student flexibility and uses the term "BiFlex" to distinguish these from HyFlex courses.
I think she outlines several excellent ways to consider two-mode and flexible course designs to support learning. I would say, though, that the approaches that include classroom and online modes with flexibility are exactly the same as HyFlex. In fact, I started with two-mode HyFlex when I had classroom and online asynchronous modes only. I added in the third mode of synchronous only when we had the technology to support that reasonably well. HyFlex, as I have always defined it, can be two or three modes!
As you consider the modes of learning that your students need, and the amount of flexibility they need, pick the combinations that work best for your situation. As for what you call this, the exact terminology you use to describe these course designs is irrelevant to your students, almost all of the time. HyFlex, BiFlex, FlexLearn, Co-modal, etc.; 20 or more terms are currently used for this at least.
What matters is more student access to high-quality and equitable learning opportunities. We should all agree on that!
HyFlex 2023 Research:
I've found about 46 research articles, masters theses, and dissertations published in 2023 already. (More to come this year, most assuredly.) This doesn't include many conference presentations as well. Many of these articles discuss how institutions started HyFlex during the pandemic and have decided to continue - though perhaps at a smaller scale - as full campus operations have returned. These support the trends identified in the recent EDUCAUSE reports, highlighted in our September 5 newsletter available in our archive here: https://www.hyflexlearning.org/newsletter-archive/.
2023 findings include:
- case studies exploring the use of HyFlex in medical education, teacher education, engineering, construction, nutrition, design education, media practice, applied sciences, lifelong learning, and more
- evidence of learning community formation using the Community of Inquiry framework and in PBL environments
- aspects of student motivation and engagement in all modes of learning,
- supporting inclusive and sustainable education
- challenges with implementation - technology, student agency, academic integrity, policy (local and federal), and the faculty experience
Visit the HyFlex Learning Community Research Bibliography for over 250 items dating back to 2006. This is not a complete list, since many practitioners use their own terminology for what I would call HyFlex, but it does include much of the published literature using the terms HyFlex or "Hybrid-Flexible". Enjoy your exploration! https://www.hyflexlearning.org/bibliography/ |
