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This study differed from others on remote learning during the pandemic in that it focused on documenting the remote activities by early childhood teachers of children under the age of six and their families and how those activities varied by age and type of program. Teachers reported that while they thought their instruction was ultimately successful, they found the incompatibility of some of the technology for young children, lack of planning and training, and the impact on life/work balance to be challenging. Teachers also reported spending more time planning instruction and communicating with families than on providing instruction.

“Hybrid learning can be a best of both worlds, or a worst of both worlds reality,” said Bree Dusseault, practitioner-in-residence at the University of Washington’s Center for Reinventing Public Education, which has been surveying schools throughout the pandemic.

Knowing how to set up your hybrid learning space is key for not only avoiding future issues, but also it is essential for enhanced student-centered learning.

An aggregate of resources intended to help teachers overcome the challenges of creating an online learning environment to ensure students feel included, safe, and connected to educators and their classmates.

This study aims to synthesize the best available evidence worldwide to have an overview of the state-of-the-art of the current research, to get a better insight in the do’s and don’ts within this setting by summarizing benefits, challenges; and yo formulate design principles, as well as to define the future directions for investigation based on the current research gaps.

This handbook is the main output of the Blended Synchronous Learning Project. It includes a Blended Synchronous Learning Design Framework that offers pedagogical, technological and logistical recommendations for teachers attempting to design and implement blended synchronous learning lessons. It is envisaged that the outcomes and products of the Blended Synchronous Learning Project will provide guidance to help educators and universities effectively unite remote and faceto-face students in live classes using contemporary rich-media synchronous technologies.

Exploration of Hyflex and BlendFlex as potential solutions to the problem of student success and retention. Improving upon earlier iterations of distance learning, Hyflex and Blendflex give students a choice in which modality they participate for any given class meeting. This can help students persist when they would otherwise have extensive class absences and/or drop the course due to circumstances beyond their control (illness, childcare, transportation access, etc.) Implementing Hyflex/BlendFlex can involve extensive planning and technology resources, but as campuses continue to do so, more study and research is needed as to the actual effect on student success and retention.

This workshop was presented at the OLC conference, focusing on the results of Columbia University’s pilot of two blended synchronous courses where students attended online via webconferencing tools, and in the classroom. The workshop also presented a current literature review, lessons learned, along with perspectives of the instructors, TAs, and online students involved in the two pilot courses.

This article highlights interaction within physical and virtual spaces in a higher education HyFlex learning environment with live streamed lectures and seminars. What kinds of learning spaces do we shape when we connect physical and virtual spaces? How does a group of teachers interact in these spaces and how do the HyFlex spaces affect the interaction? The perspective of ‘designs for learning’ theoretically frames the study. The result shows that several different spaces are shaped: physical space, representational space, interactional space, and liminal space. The results also imply that a HyFlex model requires an increased didactic awareness of designing for learning.

Part of the CUNY Academic Commons, the CUNY Hyflex website is a substantial repository of information about the Hyflex initiative as it is being implemented and supported across the CUNY campuses.  The website includes resources, such as instructional and engagement strategies, along with a well-structured mini-course that presents the basics of teaching and learning in the Hyflex model.

A fact sheet on HyFlex course design.

The course in this study implemented HyFlex principles to expand learning opportunities of adult graduate students in a higher education setting. Results indicated that participants perceived HyFlex to be a good way to accommodate student needs and their life circumstances, increase student access to course content and instruction, differentiate instruction, and give students a sense of control over their learning.

Published in the early months of the COVID-19 shut down, this article presents the potential advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations of implenting the HyFlex instructional model in the upcoming Fall 2020 semester.

Provides a useful infographic on four potential models of HyFlex course design that start with a fully-developed asynchronous online course which all support adaptability, connection, and equity.

Students in higher education have more demands placed on their time and need a college education for more careers than ever before. Flexible class participation options are needed that provide students with opportunities to manage their hectic lives with more individualized control. At the same time, most institutions of higher education are under pressure to serve more students and serve existing students more effectively. Online courses are often considered part of a systematic solution to these issues, but many schools and their faculty do not want to jettison their effective classroom approaches in order to shift to online delivery, nor should they. HyFlex courses may support both online and classroom-based courses and programs without deploying separate classes in each mode. HyFlex courses allow students to participate in the classroom or online and to make that choice on a continuous basis. The HyFlex design is used at many institutions to provide these benefits. This chapter describes the HyFlex design and development process, explains two common course types, and provides summary evaluation data on effectiveness of the approach.

The article is written during the first-wave, post-shutdown, of the COVID-19 pandemic and advocates for instructors to move beyond a reactive/crisis-mode in order to begin implementing instructional practices that encourage interaction, reflection, learning, and skills development. Examples of recommended classroom practices for engagement, assessment, and use of technology are highlighted with an emphasis on establishing rules and expectations on active participation regardless of chosen modality along with the need advanced planning and implementation of innovative technology.

An open educational textbook and resource on multi-modal design.

Teacher preparation programs need quality training courses that offer flexible, interactive alternatives to isolating online courses and classroom-based programs that limit students to a specific place and time. HyFlex aligns with learner centered instruction and offers a unique opportunity for educators to receive quality licensure courses. This article explores existing literature on the HyFlex course delivery method and discusses a case study done to examine student outcomes resulting from its use in a post-baccalaureate special education teacher licensure program.

An episode of the ThinkUDL podcast where Brian Beatty and the host discuss the values and principles of the HyFlex course design model, along with its history and implementation in several contexts. The website for the episode includes a list of additional resources about HyFlex.

Lessons learned at Athens State University after piloting the HyFlex model of instruction during the Fall 2020 semester.

A community of educators working together to improve student access to high-quality and equitable learning by using Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) learning environments.

This article introduces social work educators to the HyFlex blended learning model and presents the results from a five-week experiment utilizing the HyFlex blended approach in an undergraduate social welfare policy course. Benefits and challenges of the model are presented and discussed.

Blended synchronous learning involves using rich-media technologies to enable remote and face-to-face students to jointly participate in the same live classes. This article presents blended synchronous learning designs from seven case studies that were part of a project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching and articulates principles for implementation as espoused by the teachers who enacted them. A wide range of technologies (including video conferencing, web conferencing and virtual worlds), tasks (namely collaborative evaluation, group questioning, class discussion, problem solving and collaborative design) and levels of student interaction (from lightweight to tightly coupled) were present within the designs. The main issues that teachers confronted when facilitating blended synchronous lessons were those relating to communication and those relating to cognitive overload caused by split attention. Key pedagogical principles for enactment as identified by the lead teachers included the need for extensive preparation, clear instructions, composure, flexibility, advance preparation of students and savvy utilisation of support staff.

This paper introduces the efforts of the CEPSE/COE Design Studio at Michigan State University to design and implement synchromodal classes for the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET ) Ph.D. program. Synchromodalclasses refer to classes in which online and face-to-face students interact during shared synchronous sessions. It describes the antecedents that led to the development of synchromodal classes along with the strategy of a repeated cycle of designing, implementing, and adjusting the realization of synchromodal classes.

Based on interviews of seventy-five, K-12 instructors of different levels and subjects, this research article identified and differentiated three modes of hybrid instruction where students and instructors were either 100% in one modality or the other (parallel), switched between modalities (alternating) based on a schedule, and a combination of both modalities with one instructor teaching both at the same time (blended). The blended hybrid method was cited as most work-intensive for the instructor, with some stating that juggling multiple devices and splitting focus between online synchronous and face-to-face students simultaneously was difficult. Instructor found that incorporating more asynchronous online elements helped to improve instruction for the remote students and was less the work involved for all.

HyFlex instruction is a pedagogical method that provides a student-centered experience, offering learners the choice of three different modalities of instruction: face-to-face, synchronous online and asynchronous online. There are a great number of advantages to this approach, but it does not come without its challenges. Instructors may find the undertaking daunting as there are many moving parts, but these difficulties can be overcome with a methodical process. A well-planned, thoughtful HyFlex course may be thought of as a scripted experience, one in which students are ushered through the three modalities seamlessly, regardless of which one they may choose in any given week. From comprehensive fully online modules to a well-choreographed synchronous or in- person session, there are strategies to help the HyFlex instructor manage all of the moving parts without stress or anxiety.

Due to the rapid increase in online course enrollments, online and blended education receives much research attention. However, a paucity of research exists for the Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) instructional model. This model allows students flexibility about how to participate in lecture and is geared toward providing students with educational choices and incorporating instructional technologies that mirror the personal technologies students use every day. This article outlines the development and testing of a modified HyFlex instructional model specifically designed for large, on-campus courses where students had three attendance mode choices (live online, face-to-face, or view a recorded session). To support curricular goals, the instructor implemented technology affording live lecture streaming, polling, and backchannel communication with negligible cost to students and little cost to the department. Highlighted results indicate the modified HyFlex instructional model had no negative impact on student performance in the class, both in overall learning and on individual grades. Furthermore, students greatly enjoyed the educational choices and overwhelmingly reported the incorporation of technology increased their participation in class and comprehension of course content. The authors discuss the findings, address study limitations, and offer suggestions for future HyFlex research.

This study was a mixed method, exploratory study designed to investigate the perceived effectiveness of Flipgrid, an online video discussion board learning tool that can be utilized on a smart phone, in HyFlex delivery modality business courses. Results indicate that Flipgrid is a beneficial learning tool and further timely research should be conducted with HyFlex courses becoming more prevalent due to COVID-19.

An overview of how to design HyFlex instruction. Challenges, as well as suggestions about ways to overcome those challenges, are identified to help instructors teach effectively using this model.

Understanding by Design is a book written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe that offers a framework for designing courses and content units called “Backward Design.” the backward design approach has instructors consider the learning goals of the course first. These learning goals embody the knowledge and skills instructors want their students to have learned when they leave the course. This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design. Then it will elaborate on the three stages that backward design encompasses. Finally, an overview of a backward design template is provided with links to blank template pages for convenience.