It’s Time for Flexible Classrooms – Introducing HyFlex Course Design and Delivery | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by Amy Lin, the Teaching & Learning Centre

in the June 2021 issue

What we have learned this past year is that students have more constraints and managing time and schooling has become difficult if not impossible for many. The Flexible approach for students offers class participation options that is needed – providing students with opportunities to make choices to help them manage their lives and giving them individualized control. The HyFlex course supports both online and classroom-based programs without having to offer separate classes in each mode. This multi-modal approach to teaching allows students to choose on a continuous basis whether they want to participate in the classroom, synchronously online, or asynchronously online.

HyFlex teaching and learning has many great benefits for students and has been used in many institutions since it was first introduced by Dr. Brian Beatty in 2007. HyFlex is a course design mode that gives students the opportunity to attend in class, online synchronously, or online asynchronously. In the HyFlex model, the student chooses which modality on a daily basis. They can either choose to come to campus at the scheduled class time or join the class remotely at that scheduled time, or choose the virtual class in their own scheduled time.

To teach in the Flexible mode, specific technology must be installed in the classroom.

The classrooms include at least one camera focused on the front of the classroom to allow “remote” students to see the instructor and an appropriate number of speakers for the size of the room to provide opportunities for two-way engagement of all participants. At a minimum, one display device is present in each room which can be used to ensure that students physically present in the room can see their counterparts who are joining remotely as well as any content that the instructor chooses to display for the class.

Teaching in the Flexible (HyFlex) mode requires thoughtful planning and course design. There are also strategies that are useful when it comes to the delivery of a HyFlex course. The Teaching & Learning Centre offers a range of supports for HyFlex teaching:

• Learn more about Flexible Teaching (HyFlex) and explore the resources we’ve collected on the Teaching & Learning Centre website.
• Watch for the upcoming section of our FunFlex – Fundamentals of HyFlex Course Design and Delivery course to start in mid-to-late August 2021.
  This is a three-week asynchronous course. Through an exploration of HyFlex concepts, participants learn how to rethink traditional online and classroom-based learning into a HyFlex mode that considers how students will engage with them, the course content, and each other. Practical exercises will enable participants to gain the knowledge and skills required to design and deliver HyFlex courses that are engaging and meet Seneca’s Quality Framework for Designing & Delivering Online, Hybrid, and HyFlex Courses.
• Our HyFlex online module is coming mid-August 2021.
• We're excited to offer a Flexible Classrooms version of our Micro-teaching Sessions two-day course (pending Public Health guidelines).

View the June 2021 issue of the Academic Newsletter.