Now that we’ve been invited to consider HyFlex teaching (and some of us are well versed already), it may be time to dip into some explanations. Educause has published a short info sheet that you may find helpful. Another quick read is an article by a teacher who has experience with this mode, and she shares how she’s solved some of the problems encountered so far. If you want more, you could turn to this free online book, which includes chapters on HyFlex learning.

Not surprisingly, The Chronicle of Higher Education has recent articles on the subject. If you have a subscription, you can access two of them. In “How to Engage Students in a Hybrid Classroom” (referring to the HyFlex model), an academic-technology expert at Stanford University advises teachers to “design a fully online class and think of the in-person part of it as an enhancement to the core of your coursework.” The reason is that trying to keep remote and in-person students engaged simultaneously can be counterproductive. If you’re worried about logistical frustrations, Kevin Gannon corroborates those fears with an amusing scenario of what it can be like to operationalize this mode of teaching in “Our Hyflex Experiment: What’s Worked and What Hasn’t”:

• Enter the physical classroom.
• Wipe down the instructor station.
• Log in. Log in to Blackboard. Log in to Zoom.
• Start the Zoom meeting.
• Greet the students who are attending in person.
• DON’T FORGET TO HIT “RECORD” LIKE YOU DID LAST CLASS.
• Share the computer screen.
• Make sure you’re not walking too far from the mic.
• Repeat the in-person student’s question so the students on Zoom can hear it.
• Ask for a response from the Zoom students.
• Wait. Wait. Wait.
• Repeat the question.
• Realize you didn’t turn up the volume.
• Take off your glasses because they’re fogging up again, even with your new mask that was supposed to minimize that.

I hasten to add that the article doesn’t just stress “what hasn’t” worked. If any of you have some tips about what has worked for you, please share them in the comments.

I just got an alert about a webinar on Thursday that describes best practices for using digital textbooks.  If you have time, you may want to check it out.

Webinar Sign-up Page