Challenges of Student Equity and Engagement in a HyFlex Course

Abstract

HyFlex courses are characterised by a mixture of online and face-to-face learning components. In particular, students are allowed to choose themselves to complete any part of the course in online and/or face-to-face mode. Such courses arguably provide the highest flexibility for student learning, but also pose a number of challenges to learning design. These include the ones inherent to online instruction and face-to-face instruction, but also those of creating equitable alignment between the two modes to achieve the same learning outcomes. In this chapter, we report on the insights drawn from designing and delivering a second-year undergraduate information technology course on two campuses, in which students could complete any learning activity and assessment online or face-to-face. We describe our approach to support student engagement, group work, and peer review in HyFlex mode, and some challenges we faced to match learning designs to available technology. We evaluated our teaching components according to student participation and their quantitative and qualitative feedback. We found that most students appreciated the HyFlex mode delivery and while our approach was shown to be effective, it was in some way constrained by the technology available.

Explaining persistence in online courses in higher education: a difference-in-differences analysis

“…It corroborates findings of previous studies (Halverson and Graham 2019;Mandernach 2015;Rovai 2003). In order to improve student engagement, active learning strategies could be used by instructors, such as using short video recordings on course content and including reflective questions, examples from everyday life or professional practice, a reflective journal, practical exercises, problem-solving, simulations, and authentic and peer assessments (Binnewies and Wang 2019). Instructors could also increase opportunities for interactions (1) between students, using icebreaking activities, collaborative work, peer presentations and assessments, etc.…”

Teaching and Learning Modalities in Higher Education During the Pandemic: Responses to Coronavirus Disease 2019 From Spain

“…Classes in hybrid mode allow for optimization of the use of academic resources and grant control of the capacity and social distance, as there are fewer people in the classroom, such that the social distancing measures imposed by the state can be better complied with. In the case of mirror classrooms , they overcome many of the difficulties that the digital divide can cause (Beatty, 2019 ; Binnewies and Wang, 2019 ). Although the interest of this cited study focuses on undergraduate teaching, it is necessary to carry out the same study with other University stages.…”

“…As has been previously reported in descriptive case studies, the HyFlex techniques are implemented by an instructor. Previous research has shown efforts to include this methodology, although few studies report the impact on student learning and the associated metrics of interest, such as qualifications, retention, pass rate, and time to graduation (Lightner and Lightner-Laws, 2016 ; Beatty, 2019 , Binnewies and Wang, 2019 ; Mumford and Dikilitaş, 2020 ).…”

Classroom Management Strategies for Hyflex Instruction: Setting Students Up for Success in the Hybrid Environment

“…A variation of the hybrid instructional mode, where students were all in person during some weeks of class and online during other weeks of class, the hyflex instructional design (Beatty, 2014 ) is not new in the higher education setting. It was developed to provide attendance choice flexibility to students in the graduate setting (Bell et al, 2014 ; Binneweis & Wang, 2019 ). Students receiving hyflex instruction have the choice to either attend in-person or synchronously online, with an option for students to watch a recording of the class if they are unable to attend either.…”