This blog will share an interview I had with two colleagues from the Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences: Lee Jagodzinski (Academic Lead for Simulation) and Charles Everard (Clinical Skills/Technical Learning Resources Manager). Both Lee and Charles have extensive experience of delivering Hyflex teaching to Health Science students based on multiple sites.
In this interview, they share how they plan and design their Hyflex teaching; what digital skills they think students and lecturers need to have for Hyflex teaching and learning, and what challenges they have experienced and what they did to address them.
What is your understanding of hyflex teaching?
Lee: Hyflex teaching is about offering students the flexibility to choose which mode they prefer to learn and participate in my module. Usually, they have three options: join my session on campus; join my session synchronously from home and join my session asynchronously by watching the video recordings later on.
What is your experience of hyflex teaching?
Lee: We used hyflex teaching in our simulation lab, even before the pandemic. It is a common teaching method used for teaching technical skills. There was a small group of a lecturer and students operating in one room and this process and performance were video recorded and broadcasted in another room where we had a large group of students. During the pandemic, some students were shielding at home. Therefore, this process was also broadcasted to students at home. We usually follow a three-stage pedagogical flow:
Stage 1: Pre-questions
Stage 2: Simulation activities
Stage 3: Debrief
For example, in a hyflex session on limb assessment, I initially fielded any questions from the pre-recorded session. I then shared the PowerPoint on Teams and discussed the examples and the possible red flags, linking it to the assessment process. Another staff member then acted as my dummy, and I demonstrated the assessment process using the ceiling cameras in David Fussey. The ‘patient’ also held a web cam to help with the close ups.
Then on a face-to-face skills day, I had some students on site and some online students demonstrate over Teams (those that lived in a group house) with feedback from both the online and on-site students. I could clarify any issues using the students on-site. I feel this was of value to the students who were isolating alone as they could feel part of the module and would pick up on any OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) guidance etc. It appeared to be that more students are attending online as it is easier, and I assume they are confident with the assessment process.
Can you tell me more about the AR/VR set up in the room?
Lee: During the session, I used my head mic but streamed the audio output through the TV speakers. I also used my laptop as I could place this next to the bed and control the Teams session more easily. Sometimes, I needed to adjust the ceiling cameras then I had to break away to the nurses’ station.
How do you plan and design hyflex teaching? What teaching and learning activities did you find worked particularly well for hyflex teaching?
Lee: My top advice is to simplify your teaching activities. For a 2-hour-long session, you need to plan your teaching into smaller bite size elements. For hyflex teaching in my discipline, it happened on multiple sites, and students have limited attention. You really need to have a clear structure in mind and communicate it clearly with your students. This brings me to my second top tip which is to prepare a set of pre-questions to engage them throughout the session. You could use these questions to structure your students’ activities and keep them engaged. Another thing you need to do is to pause often, especially if you would like to engage them in discussions during the debrief. They are studying from different places, and their active involvement in the session is key to their learning experiences. To ensure everyone is involved and clear on the task, pausing gives everyone time and space to consolidate their learning and catch up with the pace. Also, I find Teams breakout rooms very useful. Putting students into breakout rooms to discuss some questions allows me to interact with more students from different sites and build relationships.
What are essential digital skills you think lecturers and students need to have?
Charles: I would say for colleagues who are planning for hyflex teaching, it is about knowing how to check sound, speaker, camera; using MS Teams and breakout rooms; and building content for hyflex teaching.
Lee: Students also need to learn to use MS Teams and breakout rooms. But most importantly, it is about aligning their thinking to this new way of learning. It takes time to learn this process from gaining personal experiences.
What technical and pedagogical challenges did you experience? And what did you do to address them or would have done differently?
Charles: A common technical challenge is the lag, due to internet bandwidth. The key is the device that students use to learn. They need to not just see the video streaming if they study at home, they also need to be able to open digital content and materials. I would say to solve this I would suggest to students to learn with a PC or laptop, rather than a mobile phone if possible.
Lee: I would say the barriers for communication. I am interested in students’ psychological safety, and I have seen student meltdowns and understand students’ first year anxiety. These could be real challenges for hyflex teaching, as they are learning with peers from different sites and switching their camera off.
Dr Yang Yang
Lecturer in HE Learning and Teaching
Academic and Learning Enhancement, University of Greenwich