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Hello, HyFlex Learning Community members!
The Fall 2021 term is here (or launching soon) and many of us are back on-campus meeting with students and supporting students online as well. Others are meeting students fully online still, though many provide flexibility among synchronous and asynchronous learning paths for students to choose their own "best fit" of learning needs, goals, preferences and participation mode. Where are you?
In my case, our department decided in spring to remain fully online in Fall 21, though many of us do provide flexibility among online options. We're now asking students if (or when) they would like to return to classrooms as we schedule our Spring 2022 curriculum. Not surprisingly, many students are telling us they are happy continuing to learn online and most of those prefer synchronous learning experiences. Even those students wanting to remain online tell us they would like in-person opportunities, but they'd like those to be more special event focused rather than every day (or week) class meetings. I interpret this as them saying "If there is value (from my perspective), I'll come back to campus. But if it's for the same instruction as before, I prefer to work remotely for a variety of reasons."
One of the biggest challenges we face in HyFlex teaching is engaging students across all modes so that everyone is actively involved in learning. Each mode delivers a different student experience, even when we are implementing the same activities (discussion, presentation, etc.). Technology mediated learning is often strongly influenced by the technologies used and the affordances they provide. It's not surprising that an activity in the classroom "feels" very different than the same activity in a Zoom classroom or in an asycnrhonous virtual classroom.
To help our community share questions, issues, ideas, and solutions associated with engaging students, we are focusing the next two gathering webinars on this topic.
Gathering Online September 24, 2021
We are hosting our next HyFlex Learning Community gathering (online) on September 24, 2021 from 8:00am-9:00am PT. Our focus is on sharing ideas and practices for engaging students in the synchronous class session: some students participating live in the classroom and others participating online in a web conferencing application. We’ll share some of our practices, describing what and why we use them, and discussing how well they work and which context factors help them succeed. We encourage all of you to bring your own methods to share and questions for us to discuss.
Looking ahead, the October community gathering will address engaging learners across all modes, including asynchronous participants.
We are using the GoToMeeting web conferencing system and have capacity for approximately 250 participants. To reserve a seat, please use this Eventbrite link to register for the webinar and receive the event link through email. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hyflex-learning-community-gathering-september-2021-registration-167912421573 The gathering event is open to all who register - members and future members alike :)
HyFlex Course Design Workshops October 11-15, 2021 and January 10-14, 2022
Looking ahead, our next HyFlex Course Design workshops are scheduled for October 11-15, 2021 and January 10-14, 2022. This fully online workshop is hosted in our own LMS site, is facilitated by several members of the HLC team, and consists of five 90-minute synchronous sessions throughout the week, supported by online resources and asynchronous discussion activities each day. Fully asynchronous participation is also supported. For full description and the opportunity to enroll, visit https://www.hyflexlearning.org/workshops/ .
If you'd like information on how to register groups or pay for registration other than with a credit card, please contact us at hyflexlearning@gmail.com
Recent Blog Posts
View the entire blog here: https://www.hyflexlearning.org/blog/ Click from the list below to read each post at the blog site. Only HLC members are allowed to post blog comments, but everyone can read any post and associated comments. |
