A New Version Of Blended Learning

Just this past week, I have started taking a week-long workshop from the Sloan-C organization on the Hyflex model. The Hyflex model takes blended learning to the next level. A typical blended scenario places students in a face-to-face class about 50% of the time. The rest of their course is conducted in an online environment. (This percentage is general. Each institution defines what mix of classroom to online time makes a blended course.) The Hyflex model puts the decision of attendance in the students hands.

Students decide if they should attend regularly scheduled face-to-face sessions, or if they should "attend" the online session for that week. Students can also decide to attend both the face-to-face and online sessions. Regardless of the choice students make in prior weeks, the next week, they could "attend" class using one of the other attendance options.

The Hyflex approach adds a challenge for both the student and the instructor. I am going to focus on the instructor's challenges, but I hope to do it in a way that will allow instructors to make sure they are addressing their student's needs. After all, this is what the Learner Advocate is all about!

The biggest challenge for the instructor and any development staff is the amount of work that must be put into a course that follows the Hyflex Model. In essence, faculty are developing what amounts to two courses. They need to develop their lecture materials and face-to-face activities, and they need to develop their online materials for each unit of instruction. After initial observation one might think that I will develop my lecture and then find a way to make sure that I can deliver it online. This seems to make the most sense from an amount of work and time perspective, but it isn't the correct approach to take with this method of instruction. Faculty are encouraged to develop their lecture materials and activities and post them online. Then, they should develop separate materials and activities for the online version of the course. The online materials need to meet the same objectives as their face-to-face counterpart, but the activities and how content is delivered should be different. The thinking behind this is that regardless of which delivery method a student chooses in a given week, they have the benefit of experiencing the delivery of content in two very different ways. If a student attends one, or the other, or both, they have access to all materials for each unit of instruction. This is a time intensive task that is the crux of the Hyflex model.

Useful links:

http://www.sloan-c.org/

http://itec.sfsu.edu/hyflex/hyflex_home.htm

Stay subscribed to this blog as many of my next postings will be regarding the Hyflex Model, how to implement it, who it's good for, and tips for student success in this method of teaching and learning.