What is Hyflex Course Delivery?

What HyFlex is all about

Developed in 2006, the HyFlex course delivery method wasn’t made with pandemics in mind but has certainly grown in popularity since COVID-19 shuttered physical campuses.

The model’s core principle maintains that every student gains the same learning outcomes and faces the same expectations but can engage with the course through various methods of delivery. Students can attend a lecture in-person one week and online the next, with no change in their learning outcome.

How is that possible? In a HyFlex course, every class is delivered face-to-face, over live stream (synchronously), and via recording (asynchronously). Students can then choose to take a seat in-class; watch the class live online and participate through their computer microphone or through a monitored online chat; or tune in to the course afterwards, watching the lecture video and participating via an online chat platform.

Importantly, all delivery options present the same material and require the same level of engagement from students. As such, the model opens the doors to students who have a variety of commitments, live in a remote community, or manage health conditions that prohibit them from attending classes in-person 100 percent of the time.

Of course, this requires much planning, a smooth integration of technology with the curriculum, and a renewed approach to learning from both instructors and students.

How HyFlex works

Making such a variable, flexible model work in practice is not as simple as recording and live streaming lectures. Instructors plan the curriculum so that course content and various participation tools work together. Technology makes that integration successful.

Because someone streaming the course synchronously must be as engaged as the person in-class, chat functionality must be available and monitored constantly. Instructors or assistants can moderate the discussions between online chat and in-person comments during the lecture. Screens also need to be in the classroom, to bring online learners into the room. And quality microphones and cameras are essential to ensure all students online can easily hear and see the goings-on and vice versa: students in class can easily see and hear those participating online.

Those tuning in to the class asynchronously need access to more than a simple recording of the lecture. They should be encouraged to engage with the material, just like those who were present for or tuned in to the lecture in real-time. This means setting up chat rooms and engagement opportunities online, and then addressing those contributions in-class or online, when appropriate.

HyFlex is all about flexibility in how students access lectures. It is not about making a course or aspects of a course optional or on a varied timeline. Students start and finish courses, complete assignments and write exams as scheduled, just like they would in a more traditional, in-class course model. The radical difference is that they can do so online, in-person, or through some combination of the two.

Why HyFlex is great

Clearly, having the option to move between in-person and online classes during a pandemic is advantageous. The current public health crisis aside, though, that value remains. Inevitably, students miss a class through the semester because they fall ill, must care for a sick child or family member, can’t travel due to inclement weather, or have to address any other of the plethora of commitments that arise in life. With HyFlex, students can stay up to date with course work in the face of those other commitments. Asynchronous class materials also offer the opportunity for students to revisit coursework after they attended or tuned in to the lecture synchronously. So it also encourages content revision and retention.

The benefits apply to instructors, too. Because all classes are prepared for both face-to-face and online delivery, should an instructor be sick or unable to travel, the class can proceed online, with no diminished experience or outcome for students.

Why HyFlex doesn’t always work

The biggest challenge to HyFlex courses is the substantial investment of time and technology. Equipping classrooms with quality microphones and cameras that offer online students the opportunity to hear and see clearly what is happening in the classroom is essential.

Teachers, too, face the challenge of effectively planning and developing content for online and in-person delivery. If the online (synchronous or asynchronous) options are seen as less effective or engaging than face-to-face classes, online students will be disadvantaged, that delivery option will become underutilized, and the HyFlex method will ultimately fail. Therefore, teachers and institutions have to be devoted to ensuring all delivery approaches equally effective and easy to access.

Of course, HyFlex isn’t for every class either. Some courses don’t lend themselves to the varied delivery methods. Labs and physical coursework (as required in woodworking, mechanics, and theatre, for example) are obvious examples where HyFlex isn’t ideal.

But for many lecture-style courses, the method is a promising step forward for educators trying to meet the diverse needs of the student body — not to mention, teach effectively and safely during a pandemic.