During the summer of 2020, I redesigned four of my courses as Hyflex courses. While there’s no denying that this was a gargantuan undertaking, I did it because Hyflex seemed like it was an approach that could be highly beneficial for students and professors alike during a pandemic that would potentially span multiple semesters.

What I Appreciated

Hyflex design clicked in my mind as an approach that made sense for the world that we now live in and the world that is yet to come. I have come to love the flexibility, equity, and structure that Hyflex design provides students and professors alike. It makes creative use of technology and pedagogy while also appreciating the impossible pressures that people are sometimes facing with school, work, financial, relational and other commitments.

It’s difficult to enumerate all the advantages of Hyflex because there are so many that come to mind. If I was forced to summarize them in one word, I would say: options.

Hyflex provides options as to how students participate in a course, how they demonstrate their learning, when they learn in terms of time, and where they learn in terms of location. Hyflex also provides options to professors in terms of how they provide content, how they cultivate learning, and how they assess student learning outcomes.

Looking back on the events of the past two years, they have affected us all differently and highlighted our different circumstances and contexts. Within an educational setting, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for any of us. People are different, and we benefit from being provided multiple pathways as options. Hyflex courses are one option for how courses can be offered, and any given Hyflex course can also provide multiple pathways for teaching and learning within that course itself.

What I Wish Was Different

If I had a faculty colleague who was considering trying the Hyflex approach, and if they asked me what my past self would do differently, I would say: only redesign one class per semester and train a few TA’s to help with grading each class.

The Hyflex approach is a paradigm shift that requires patient, iterative adaptations over time. The design work involves heavy lifting on the part of the professor, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to redesign more than one course at a time. I’d also recommend leaning into the support, training, and expertise that IFD has to offer.

My experience has been that there is also a role shift for the teaching professor, from a didactic role focused on content delivery to more of a coaching role focused on providing feedback. If a Hyflex course is designed with many low-stakes formative assessments of student learning, those benefit from a team approach to grading (the team being the professor and a few TA’s). I have been fortunate to have wonderful TA’s over the years, and I’ve also used an assignment mix where some activities need a human to grade them whereas others are automatically graded by Canvas. However, I’ve also probably shouldered too much of the grading burden when I could have asked for more help from additional TA’s.

What Students Appreciated

Redesigning my courses to be Hyflex felt like a risk, and I wasn’t sure how students would respond. I was surprised that the course evaluations have been positive overall. Course evaluations can be tricky to interpret meaningfully, but I try to focus on key themes that emerge across the qualitative comments.

Here are some student comments that seem representative of main themes:

• “Parke killed it with creative activities and assignments for us to do. There are many teachers who give bogus assignments just because we are online now, but I felt like the assignments she provided were reflective and analytical.”
• “Dr. Parke was so intentional about the way she framed this semester and it totally showed. I learned so much from this class and I’m thankful for all her hard work in creating a pleasurable online experience.”
• “I felt like this was one of the classes I learned the most in. I enjoyed taking the quizzes and testing my knowledge. And knowing that I could mess up on quizzes and just retake actually helped me retain information better.”
• “Great that she didn’t just use PowerPoint.”

What Students Wish Was Different

Of course, students also commented on aspects that they wished were different about these Hyflex courses. Two of the main themes I noticed were that they requested “more lecture” and “longer Zoom sessions.” I was both surprised and not surprised by these themes.

Especially during the past few academic years, I have operated on the assumption that the “sage on the stage” model of teaching and death by PowerPoint are not the most wonderful catalysts of student learning. I also assumed that everyone is suffering from Zoom fatigue, so I have tried to keep Zoom class sessions around the 40-minute to 50-minute mark while offloading the rest of that instructional time into Canvas activities that students can complete asynchronously.

What students helped me learn with their feedback was that, if they enroll in a Hyflex course, it’s helpful if the professor explains and re-explains at the frontend of the course that it’s more activity-based rather than lecture-based. That way students have clarity about what to expect at the beginning of a course and can even opt-out if they’d prefer a more lecture-based class. I also realized that students greatly value the large group discussion and breakout room small group discussions, which was the primary reason for requesting longer Zoom sessions. They recommended a minimum of 3-4 people per breakout room.

Learning Hyflex design has been a highlight of my time at Vanguard. Thank you especially to David Rhoads, Bonni Stachowiak, and Shannon Johnson for all the professional development opportunities they have offered us through IFD!