What is HyFlex at NDSU?
HyFlex is short for hybrid-flexible. At NDSU, this means each course is built to give students and instructors a choice to attend either in person or remotely. The course still has a physical classroom and synchronous instruction, and the learning outcomes are the same regardless of mode of attendance. HyFlex is not a software package, a learning management system, or a specific pedagogical approach.
Synchronous instruction using online meeting technologies (e.g., Class Collaborate or Zoom) that has a primary gathering space (i.e., a classroom) with some participants coming to the classroom remotely. The instructor may be one of these remote people. The composition of who is in the gathering space and who is remote may change throughout the duration of the class.
Communication - how will you communicate with all students?
- Weekly announcements
- Flexible office hours
- Syllabus
- Schedule
- Expectations for the instructor and the student (sort of like a contract)
Content - use Blackboard Original to share all course content
- Syllabus
- Announcements – welcome to class
- Weeks/lessons/chapters – including objectives
- Assignments
- Quizzes/exams
- Schedule
Student Engagement - suggested methods & tools
Most definitions of engagement reference the relationship between student activity (in the form of attention, interest, and curiosity) and motivation. Learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired, and that learning tends to suffer when students are bored, dispassionate, disaffected, or otherwise "disengaged."
- Cameras on and microphones muted
- Polling – quick questions, Point Solutions (formerly TurningPoint), Zoom, Teams, and Class Collaborate Ultra (formerly Blackboard Collaborate Ultra)
- Break up lectures with activities
- Discussions
- Interactive classroom discussions, including remote students
- Continue online asynchronously to give students an opportunity to contribute
- Group work
- In class – using text chats to avoid audio overload
- Mix up in the class and remote students
- The same group members all semester or mix up
- Communication
- Virtual office hours
- FAQs discussion forum for students to ask and answer questions
- Announcements
- Introductions – blogs, discussions, VoiceThread (idea: include photos with and without masks)
Assessment
Assessing student learning should be the same for classroom and remote students
- Alternative Assessments: thinking beyond the test
- Assessments should show what the student can do. What have the students learned? (Terry Doyle Learner Centered Teaching “the one that does the work does the learning”)
- What are your course objectives/outcomes? (Bloom’s Taxonomy action verbs
- Formative & summative assessments throughout the semester
- Are your Outcomes, Activities/Assignments, and Assessments aligned?
