required to move to hyflex?

[Mobius]

I won't teach HyFlex voluntarily unless there is a significant financial incentive (overload or stipend) to do so. We also need to clarify terms. HyFlex is not just allowing students to "Zoom" into lectures or posting them later. No regional or national accrediting body (institutional, not program) is requiring schools to offer HyFlex or online options. Are there crazy program-level bodies requiring this crap?

[bio-nonymous]

Some medical schools have been doing a version of hyflex for a while now (ours included), even prior to covid19. The professors are required to come to class and teach, often to just a handful of students who PREFER in-class instruction. The lesson video is recorded and the majority of students watch it whenever they want. I am not a fan--would rather do asynchronous all online myself. Teaching in a big auditorium to 6 students is not a great time...

[dr_evil]

I've heard rumors that my institution will be moving towards having HyFlex classes, but professors have already stated that they'd want greater compensation due to the extra work involved. That may end the adminicritters' plans. I hope to use the lab portion to say, "Nope, won't work. We need hands-on labs for accreditation." It sounds like course management hell to try to run a single course in three formats.

[the_geneticist]

HyFlex is one of those vague terms that is often misused.  The idea is that the class has both online and in-person components and students have flexibility to choose how to participate.  But the reality is that unless you have TWO instructors in the room (one focused on the students in person, the other focused on the students who are live-streaming), reliable technology, and making it really obvious that the "remote" students are expected to participate just as much as the in-person students, then it's not a reasonable way to teach.  It also works best for small classes (<20?) AND you have a way to manage how many/which students are in-person vs remote any given day.  Ironically, true HyFlex does NOT require you to record your classes.
Unless the admin wants to pay folks double the salary or reduce your teaching load by half and update the classroom technology, they won't be getting HyFlex.  I'm guessing they just mean "any sort of way for a student to pass without setting foot in your classroom online class delivery".  Which is a recipe for failure for a lot of students.

+1 to the "labs must be in-person".  I'm not paid enough to design & teach my courses twice.

[mleok]

Some medical schools have been doing a version of hyflex for a while now (ours included), even prior to covid19. The professors are required to come to class and teach, often to just a handful of students who PREFER in-class instruction. The lesson video is recorded and the majority of students watch it whenever they want. I am not a fan--would rather do asynchronous all online myself. Teaching in a big auditorium to 6 students is not a great time...

This is not what I would call hyflex, I would call that video podcasting. I agree that in that situation, one is better off having entirely remote asynchronous classes instead. The challenge of hyflex is having an interaction intensive class with both in-person and remote students, requiring you to field questions live from remote students, and have them interact with the rest of the class during discussions.

[mamselle]

Interesting meta-take on the larger questions raised here...

   https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-09-28-mit-professors-propose-a-new-kind-of-university-for-post-covid-era

...maybe..

M.

[Mobius]

Some medical schools have been doing a version of hyflex for a while now (ours included), even prior to covid19. The professors are required to come to class and teach, often to just a handful of students who PREFER in-class instruction. The lesson video is recorded and the majority of students watch it whenever they want. I am not a fan--would rather do asynchronous all online myself. Teaching in a big auditorium to 6 students is not a great time...

This is not what I would call hyflex, I would call that video podcasting. I agree that in that situation, one is better off having entirely remote asynchronous classes instead. The challenge of hyflex is having an interaction intensive class with both in-person and remote students, requiring you to field questions live from remote students, and have them interact with the rest of the class during discussions.

HyFlex isn't just allowing students to "Zoom in." It is supposed to be a format where students can either attend in-person or participate asynchronously in a seamless manner. Instructors can choose to stream lectures or record them for later viewing. It is not required, though. The scant literature I've read indicates that students attending in person have different types of activities in class than those who choose not to attend, with the only commonalities being exams, papers, and maybe quizzes.

The downside is you are essentially teaching online at the same time you are teaching F2F, with little-to-no compensation for that work. Some schools are throwing in small stipends for developing and teaching a course the first time, but not for subsequent terms.

[marshwiggle]

Interesting meta-take on the larger questions raised here...

   https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-09-28-mit-professors-propose-a-new-kind-of-university-for-post-covid-era

...maybe..

M.

From the article:

Diana Henderson, one of the white paper's authors and a literature professor at MIT, says that the ideal would be for professors at this new type of university to be encouraged to spend part of their research time adapting and adding to rich lecture videos and other materials that other professors have already published to the internet—a riff on the concept of customizable open educational resources.

I've been a fan of this for ages. Say a course has 10 modules, and is taught similarly at many institutions.If each institution's instructor spent their whole course development time on a single module, including lectures, assignments, test questions, etc., then the combined result could be of much higher quality for everyone.

And Henderson stressed that the goal is not to standardize around one set of course materials, even if those materials were developed at a well-known university. "It's not this kind of colonizing other schools with our cool and groovy toys [from MIT]," she stressed. "We're showing some ways we could collaborate, become partners, and share lessons learned without saying we have all the answers."

Sigh. The idea that someone else voluntarily adapting something counts as being "colonized" shows how insane the culture wars have become.

[mamselle]

Well, I think there it means 'taking over without crediting,' or, politely, 'not stealing.'

(Which, more generally, 'colonization' also does).

M.

[marshwiggle]

Well, I think there it means 'taking over without crediting,' or, politely, 'not stealing.'

(Which, more generally, 'colonization' also does).

M.

But that's the point; if the other institution chooses to use stuff from MIT, MIT isn't "colonizing" anyone. And if MIT offers it, then the other institution isn't stealing anything. EVERYTHING is voluntary on both sides.

[mamselle]

Right.

M.

[the_geneticist]

Some medical schools have been doing a version of hyflex for a while now (ours included), even prior to covid19. The professors are required to come to class and teach, often to just a handful of students who PREFER in-class instruction. The lesson video is recorded and the majority of students watch it whenever they want. I am not a fan--would rather do asynchronous all online myself. Teaching in a big auditorium to 6 students is not a great time...

This is not what I would call hyflex, I would call that video podcasting. I agree that in that situation, one is better off having entirely remote asynchronous classes instead. The challenge of hyflex is having an interaction intensive class with both in-person and remote students, requiring you to field questions live from remote students, and have them interact with the rest of the class during discussions.

HyFlex isn't just allowing students to "Zoom in." It is supposed to be a format where students can either attend in-person or participate asynchronously in a seamless manner. Instructors can choose to stream lectures or record them for later viewing. It is not required, though. The scant literature I've read indicates that students attending in person have different types of activities in class than those who choose not to attend, with the only commonalities being exams, papers, and maybe quizzes.

The downside is you are essentially teaching online at the same time you are teaching F2F, with little-to-no compensation for that work. Some schools are throwing in small stipends for developing and teaching a course the first time, but not for subsequent terms.

The easiest way to combat this sort of nonsense is to say that you are HAPPY to do it AND here is a list of what you will need to make this a quality course.
Ask for a stipend, a course release the semester before, an upgraded computer, etc.

We've learned the hard way that students are less successful if they think they can "just watch the videos later".  One, they won't.  Two, they will try to cram N weeks of learning into the last possible time before the exam/quiz/final.  The withdrawal and failure rates were obscenely high here for remote/hybrid classes.
There are students who will pass no matter what format their class is in.  And there are students who will fail no matter what format.  The students who struggle/fail with remote instruction are so much more likely to pass an in-person class.  Those are the students we need to worry about.

[fizzycist]

I just refuse to teach hyflex and the like. Students often asking me for ways to zoom in, take makeup exams/class work, and stuff when they are gonna be out of town, sick, etc. I just tell politely them no. Admins and colleagues sometimes ask for it too. I politely tell them no as well.

I think asynchronous and synchronous online classes are fine and great for handling accessibility. Perhaps there is also a place for hyflex and the like, but I'm just not interested in teaching that way.

[MarathonRunner]

I prefer to teach HyFlex. I don't want students who are ill  coming to class and infecting everyone else.  COVID has been shown to have negative impacts on pretty much every system in the body, including the brain and the cardiovascular system. I'm happy to present live, in class, while recording the lecture for those who can't attend in person.  Most students still choose to come to class. I am in Canada, however. I've also heard from students who are volunteer note takers for accessibility services, that the recorded lectures help them ensure their notes are correct.

[marshwiggle]

I prefer to teach HyFlex. I don't want students who are ill  coming to class and infecting everyone else.  COVID has been shown to have negative impacts on pretty much every system in the body, including the brain and the cardiovascular system. I'm happy to present live, in class, while recording the lecture for those who can't attend in person.  Most students still choose to come to class. I am in Canada, however. I've also heard from students who are volunteer note takers for accessibility services, that the recorded lectures help them ensure their notes are correct.

What about labs? There's no way I can have equivalent in-person and remote labs. Some labs can come close, but even then the sequence isn't always the same. For labs, it's either one or the other for the entire term.