Diversity in HyFlex - Flexible Learning Environments: Minoritized College Students’ Experiences in HyFlex

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remote participants anywhere in the world to interact with participants on site in real time and
asynchronously, as Josephine explained:
The ability to bring in more people, regardless of where they are . . . It just creates greater
diversity. . . . Well, two things. One is that it allows people who wouldn’t be able to come
to the classroom to participate. And I think that’s a good thing.
Because the more diverse,
even if it’s like the diversity . . . the diversity is represented by someone in person versus
someone learning in a distance remote learning environment, that is greater diversity. I
mean, it’s, I’d say, it’s almost the same thing as someone who was differently learning,
like who had a different learning style, or even had a different learning disability, it
enables people to participate, and in an equal kind of a way to access the same level of
education. And that’s what’s nice is you’re the ability to sit down and like, if we have to
do
group or consider the table, I can set my laptop up and have it facing my entire group
of people of peers that are talking, which is nice. And then so if we have like a, say, like,
in one of my classes, we had a presentation, right. And that presentation included four
people and one of those persons was online, I sent that person, a Zoom link, and we were
able to do a breakout group. And so, she got the information that she needed to be able to
help present in class that following day. So, it was convenient in that way too. And she
was able to hear everything that was going on, we didn’t have any
problems with the
technology. So, she was able to participate fully with our group and it was convenient.
HyFlex affords remote learners the ability to interact synchronously with learners on site through
a combination of thoughtful course design that integrates technology as an essential component
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of the course. As Josephine pointed out, all the technology involved must work as intended to
allow effective participation and interaction:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I definitely think so with especially because like,
when it works,
when all the technology works the way it’s supposed to, you can fully participate in class.
And so, when the instructors do that, it’s easier for you to like, put across your thoughts,
like your critical thinking skills, you know what I mean? Like, it’s easier for you to
communicate those if you don’t have to think about the technology.
In this discussion, Josephine has brought two important things about HyFlex to the fore. She
gave an example of how HyFlex can promote diversity in education, and she made the case that
this ability to promote diversity hinges on optimal implementation of technology. Because the
educational experiences are facilitated through
the integration of an LMS, the internet, and
information communication technologies such as Zoom, this requires the instructor to be well-
versed in HyFlex instruction and comfortable facilitating the course in two modes
simultaneously. In later sections of this chapter, other participants discussed the importance
having trained instructors facilitate HyFlex courses. In the recommendations
section of Chapter
5, I revisit the notion of professional development for faculty and offer thoughts about
technology integration.