This week marks the third in a series of articles on the Hyflex Model of delivery. The last two weeks I have described what the Hyflex Model is, and the type of student that will learn best in this flexible style of Hybrid learning.
While the student must be motivated to be successful in this type of course, there are several things that you can do as an instructor to help your students down the path of success. Many of the suggestions that I will make are things that you could also do in an online course with a few small changes. If you think about these suggestions before your begin developing a Hyflex course, you could easily integrate some or all of these strategies with your content/exercises.
The first day of any class is always an important one. The ground rules are explained and expectations are established. In a face-to-face class, instructors typically hand out all of their administrative items--documents like the syllabus, time lines, etc. To help facilitate this process in the online environment, create a scavenger hunt game. Have students enroll in the online course, and locate the course syllabus, post an introduction of themselves in the discussion board, take a "for fun" quiz about the contents of the syllabus. It is very easy for an instructor to tell if students complete each of these items in a course. It's fun for students and it encourages them to get comfortable with how the course is laid out and how it functions.
People in education, myself included, often forget that education is a social event. No place is it more detrimental to not have a sense of community than in an online course. The discussion board seems to bring everyone together. It gives each student a platform to express their thoughts, feelings, research, agreement, and disgust. When dealing with the Hyflex Model, instructors have to be concerned with bringing two groups together; The face-to-face group and the online group. Encourage both the face-to-face and the online groups to summarize what they do each week and what they learned in the discussion board. It helps to blend these separate entities into one cohesive group. It also allows the student that chooses to participate in one group to see what happened in the other side of the class. It may just build enough curiosity that they begin participating more regularly in both facets of a Hyflex course. These "summaries" are a nice quick way for students to quickly see what content really lies in front of them and ultimately gives them the "choice" that the model is predicated on.
Finally, give your students even more freedom. Have them move away from their computer and do some meaningful research outside of the "classroom". It could be something as simple as watching a movie, going to a public place to people watch, interview a professional in the field of study. Have them do anything that is related to course content. Allow them to experience content in the real world. There is no better way to synthesize what is taught in the classroom than to see it in action. These experiences allow students to further cement course concepts in their mind. It also gets them up and away from their computers, or the classroom. Have them come back to their computers or the face-to-face classroom to share their experiences and thoughts. Regardless of what format the class is taught, these experiences need to be recorded and available for all students to read and respond.
I will be the first to admit that these ideas take some planning and a lot of work. If you haven't, go back and read the first article in this series. I pointed out that instructors will have a great deal of work to do to develop a Hyflex course. The amount of work is in direct relationship to the level of richness and understanding that your students will experience.
Useful link:
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.
Showing posts with label hybrid learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hybrid learning. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Do All Students Benefit From The Hyflex Model?
Last week, I outlined the major points to how the Hyflex Model works. This week, I want to describe the students that I feel will benefit the most from this course delivery method. As you may have guessed, this type of course isn't for everyone.
Just like pure online learning, the Hyflex model requires students to be somewhat self-directed learners. They need to make decisions on attendance and certain aspects of participation based on how well they feel they understand the content. If someone doesn't do well in this type of environment, they probably won't be as successful as you, or they would like to be. Have your students check out the two links at the bottom of this article PRIOR to signing up for your Hyflex course. The first link will help them decide if distance learning is right for them. The second link helps them to see what kind of learner they are.
So, who is the ideal student for this type of learning? I hate to say it, but it is not the first or second year undergraduate. I think that there are too many decisions that are left up to the student. I think that most traditional aged first and second year college students are not motivated enough to have the freedom of choice. They know they need to put the time in, but there is a disconnect between knowing they should be in class, and actually going--especially if it isn't mandatory! If you are someone that teaches an upper level course, would you want students coming from prerequisite courses that may or may not of attended those prerequisite courses?
Call me overprotective, but I really think this method of course delivery should be at the very minimum, reserved for third and fourth year students. The ideal target audience is graduate students. These groups of students have a track record, and are motivated to apply themselves and do well in their chosen fields of study.
Another group that will really benefit from the Hyflex Model are those adult learners that work full-time, but need to retool, or extend their knowledge for their current jobs. This model would serve this demographic well. Again, you are dealing with a highly motivated student that may not be able to make every face-to-face meeting because of job travels or meetings. If they miss here or there, they can still do well in the class and make up for the occasional miss with the content that is posted online.
Useful links:
http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=2284
http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=2285
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.
Just like pure online learning, the Hyflex model requires students to be somewhat self-directed learners. They need to make decisions on attendance and certain aspects of participation based on how well they feel they understand the content. If someone doesn't do well in this type of environment, they probably won't be as successful as you, or they would like to be. Have your students check out the two links at the bottom of this article PRIOR to signing up for your Hyflex course. The first link will help them decide if distance learning is right for them. The second link helps them to see what kind of learner they are.
So, who is the ideal student for this type of learning? I hate to say it, but it is not the first or second year undergraduate. I think that there are too many decisions that are left up to the student. I think that most traditional aged first and second year college students are not motivated enough to have the freedom of choice. They know they need to put the time in, but there is a disconnect between knowing they should be in class, and actually going--especially if it isn't mandatory! If you are someone that teaches an upper level course, would you want students coming from prerequisite courses that may or may not of attended those prerequisite courses?
Call me overprotective, but I really think this method of course delivery should be at the very minimum, reserved for third and fourth year students. The ideal target audience is graduate students. These groups of students have a track record, and are motivated to apply themselves and do well in their chosen fields of study.
Another group that will really benefit from the Hyflex Model are those adult learners that work full-time, but need to retool, or extend their knowledge for their current jobs. This model would serve this demographic well. Again, you are dealing with a highly motivated student that may not be able to make every face-to-face meeting because of job travels or meetings. If they miss here or there, they can still do well in the class and make up for the occasional miss with the content that is posted online.
Useful links:
http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=2284
http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/page.cfm?p=2285
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.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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.
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.
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