Background

HyFlex is a term that has gained in popularity in recent years, particularly during the COVID pandemic when alternative learning opportunities were urgently required instead of on-campus sessions.

Brian Beatty is credited with coining the term HyFlex back in 2006. At that time, San Francisco State University was exploring opportunities to increase their design and facilitation of online learning experiences, and Beatty wanted a term that reflected a particular approach.

What Beatty was hoping to describe was not just an online experience but one in which the student had choice, and therefore flexibility, in the ways they studied without any compromise of learning outcomes.

Clearly, a traditional blended learning approach was not going to meet our requirements. We decided that we needed a “bridge” to online; an approach to serving fully online students without abandoning our current classroom students. (Beatty, 2019, p. 17)

Learning remotely, whether online or as distance education, has been an option for many years. The now ubiquitous access to networked technologies has helped facilitate the online experience, but prior to this, students would receive documents and media in the post. These resources and learning experiences were replications of the on-campus experience. While that might sound like a reasonable substitute and perhaps even an equivalent experience, it has become clear that this is not the case. Regardless of the type of experience, more students are now choosing to study remotely, which has created a need for greater thought to be applied to fully utilising the technology that can facilitate a truly equivalent experience.

You have come to with this short course due to your interest in HyFlex, or perhaps your motivation to learn new approaches to online learning design (what ever it is called). Many of you may already work in the online environment, and if not, you most probably did during the height of the COVID pandemic. You are here as an online learner, which means you have a glimpse at what these experiences will be like. We start this HyFlex story by looking at the strategies, theories and practical approaches that have come before, with an emphasis on the people working in the field as online technology supported learning has grown.

Wenger (1998) coined the term “Communities of Practice”, and this has been a significant conceptualisation of how people learn. Importantly there is an emphasis on how adults learn and how they learn in the workplace. The premise of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ reflects the type of online learning that is flexible. The learner is making choices about how and why they learn, and the learning is often done through interactions with a community. This approach is different to one where the teacher is directing what, when and how the learning will occur. Wenger’s (2020) more recent work frames these ideas within Social Learning Spaces, again recognising the varied ways that we learn outside of the on-campus teacher-centred spaces. Social Learning Spaces provide for peer-to-peer interaction and encourage team work thereby helping students to feel more engaged and connected.

Presenting a paradigm shift, Garrison argued in 1985 that technology had a significant impact on distance education and the way in which it was delivered/received. Garrison continued to focus on exploring the dynamics between technology and learning with the seminal text for online higher education, E-Learning in the 21st Century, first published in 2003 with his colleague Anderson. This is where the framework of three presences was discussed, and it has gone on to be adopted and adapted by online teachers across the globe. You may have heard of social presence, teaching presence, and/or cognitive presence. These all sit within the community of inquiry framework.

You may be curious about why communities have featured in these theories, and we will unpack this further. For now, consider whether the learning environment in which you work is a community, or if learners are isolated and do not interact well with peers.

Hybrid

The first part of the term HyFlex, ‘Hy’ is referring to hybrid. That means the learner experience for the student will be a blend of modes. Usually that is the on-campus (face-to-face) experience and some form of technology-enhanced learning. With the rise in use of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) in Higher Education, the ease with which learning resources can be housed and accessed has increased. But that does not always equate to a good learning experience or suitable use of the technology. The key point here is that hybrid would not exist if we did not have the technology to support it.

Bonk and Graham edited the Handbook of Blended Learning in 2006 with subsequent reprints. You will find this is a useful text to explore if you want a bit more history of hybrid, blended, distributed, and e-learning approaches.  Interestingly the 2000’s was a time when significant uptake in online learning was happening and when teachers were trying to find ways to improve the experience. Supporting this was access to the new and exciting ‘Web 2.0’ tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and early video conferencing tools such as Skype. These digital tools allowed participants to connect, communicate, and collaborate more effectively online. Importantly they also supported personal and collaborative creation and co-creation, not just content consumption.

Flex

The second part of the term, ‘Flex’ refers to flexible, and this is the real point of what HyFlex is or should be. This is what makes it more complicated than simply being Hybrid or using technology. We are going to explore this aspect of HyFlex in more detail, but for now, consider whether the courses you are designing meet some or all of Beatty’s (2019) Four Principles of HyFlex:

1. Learner Choice
2. Equivalency
3. Reusability
4. Accessibility

Undoubtedly the COVID pandemic has impacted on and changed the way that education is viewed. Learners already had expectations that were not being met, but through enforced online learning experiences, a spotlight was shown on what could be achieved. The will to create a student-centred-hybrid learning environment has been driven by those that are at the centre, which is the students.

Educators who embrace HyFlex will forge ahead as they provide relevant, flexible learning experiences, and students will vote with their virtual feet.

References

Beatty, B. (2006). Designing the HyFlex world: Hybrid, flexible classes for all students. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communication and Technology International Conference, Dallas, TX.

Beatty, B. J. & Becker, R. (2019). Hybrid-Flexible Course Design (1st ed.). EdTech Books. https://dx.doi.org/10.59668/33

Bonk, C. J., & Graham, C. R. (2012). The handbook of blended learning: Global perspectives, local designs. Open Road Integrated Media. https://www.everand.com/book/666484540/The-Handbook-of-Blended-Learning-Global-Perspectives-Local-Designs

Garrison, D. (2016). E-learning in the 21st century: A community of inquiry framework for research and practice. New York: Routledge.

Garrison, D. R. & Anderson, R. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. Routledge.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Wenger-Trayner, E., Wenger, E., & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2020). Learning to make a difference: Value creation in social learning spaces. Cambridge university press.