Hyflex #3

 With omicron now starting to spread across Aotearoa New Zealand, institutes are challenged on two fronts. The first, how to provide learning for students who are unvaccinated and not able to attend f2f classes; the second on the provision of learning to students who are ill/or have symptoms and unable to be in class. Coupled with the above is also the challenge of teachers who are unvaccinated and teachers who become too ill to teach.

Continuing on from posts made last hear - Hyflex introduction and Hyflex challenges and updates, this post is another addition to record the progress of Hyflex into the Aotearoa NZ portfolio of delivery options. 

Hyflex approach to online learning is where learners are able to have a choice as to whether to attend class f2f or complete the session online. Learners choose which delivery method works. Hence, the interest in hyflex has increased expotentially across the pandemic as one option to provide flexibility to students.

Columbia University have a good site providing information and Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) in Invercargil, Aotearoa begin offering the option to students this year, It will be interesting to follow their progress as the development of resources and teaching capability will be keys to success. The SIT programme is on 'screen arts' and the student cohort will be digitally fluent. This is a key to hyflex success for learners and not all programmes will have similar learner profiles. 

Hyflex learning #2

 As summarised in a previous post, hyflex learning whereby has seen an increased interest due to the need to move to remote/distance learning caused by the current pandemic.

Hyflex learning is challenging as it requires f2f learning to run as per normal, or as blended learning as is often now used in NZ VET along with a distance learning course. Students are provided the option of participating in either f2f/blended or fully distance. The most flexible version is to allow students to hop between the different delivery modes, meaning all the versions of the course, requires synchronisation. 

This resource provides a good discussion on the intricacies of setting up, teaching on and consolidating the various aspects of hyflex. Of note is the need to 'plan ahead' and to be familiar with all the technologies to be used in each aspect of the course. This is no mean feat as it requires lecturers to not only continue with their usual 'lectures' but also conduct sessions on zoom and have all resources etc. available in a distance learning course platform. The amount of work required to put all of these delivery modes into place will be high. The commitment to be fluent with the technologies required - lecture capture, zoom discussions, design and planning of the fully online equivalent, also require capability development. Therefore, unless well resourced and supported, good quality and effective hyflex will be a challenge.

Leveraging off the socio-cultural is one way to divide up the workload and commit to successful hyflex development. The article suggest the deployment ot teaching assistants to run some aspects of classes and to create peer support groups for students. This works well when there are large cohorts of students in university type contexts but less well in VET where smaller class sizes are the norm. However, with the move on the Te Pukenga, some economies of scale may see courses being shared across the network and student groups being merged for some discipline areas. Again, learning design is important to ensure students do not struggle with being expected to be part of large classes when they signed up for smaller, more teacher contact type courses. The use of peer groups, perhaps supported by 'teaching assistants' or senior students, may be one way to keep cohort groups engaged.

Therefore, hyflex is but one option and a challenging one at that! Students attending f2f/blended OR distance and keeping to one delivery mode is still a better way forward as each has different calls on pedagogy and learning patterns. 

Hyflex - hybrid-flexible learning - elearning for the covid-19 age?

NZ has now moved to Level 2 whereby small groups (up to 10 people) are able to congregate. At the moment, Ara's courses will still be offered mainly through distance. However, if covid-19 case numbers remain low and community transmission a lessened threat, there will be a staged return to face to face (f2f) teaching.

Our challenge, as learning designers and educational developers at Ara is to maximise the gains from moving in to distance learning, achieved through much hard work, and the transfer back into the 'tried and true' of f2f  vocational education.

I encountered hyflex - hybrid-flexible learning - some years ago. It is a relatively new model developed as a sub-set of blended learning. At that time, I thought the effort to put into developing and offering both a f2f and a distance learning course, concurrently, with the same cohort of students, to be too big a challenge. However, the events of the last few months, has caused the hyflex model to be a consideration.

The advantage of hyflex for learners are many. It allows for students' mired in a complex work/learning/job availability scenario, to perhaps begin a course f2f, move to distance when they take up a job offer and perhaps move back to f2f should the job not work out. Similarly, for insitutions, enrolments are retained despite the challenges of a fluid job market whereby students may have to accept work if and when available, given the coming economic recession wrought by the pandemic.

The hyflex model is now being considered by many institutions as one way to support their students, to maintain fiscal viability and to ensure positive outcomes. However, there is a need to ensure the way in which courses are 'converted' to hyflex is planned. In particular, how courses have synergistic connections between the f2f and the distance learning delivery aspects. F2f classes may be videoed for distance learners. Resources prepared for distance learners may be useful as 'flipped learning' resources for f2f learners. Therefore, it is important to map out, learning outcomes and learning activities and identify which resources are may usefully deployed in each delivery mode or would be 'shared' between the two modes.

All making for another lot of work going forward. Hyflex will require resourcing to ensure it is effective but provides a degree of resiliency for institutions. Going forward, should the need be to move between f2f and distances delivery as the covid-19 situation evolves, then having two 'versions' of a course - distance and f2f - may be the norm.