Despite a 2019 pilot program of Hyflex model instruction, over $180,000 allocated for cameras and student interest in the instruction style, the Hyflex model will not be used during winter or spring 2022 semesters.
The Hyflex model is a form of instruction that would allow the class to be taught in-person and virtually simultaneously.
This teaching style allows for the class to be taught in two ways. The first way is having half the class in-person and the rest of the class online. Each half could alternate days or choose to stay online or in person. The second way the class could be taught is by giving the students the choice to attend class virtually or in person.
Hyflex could be used to support students who are unable to attend in person classes due to special circumstances.
“There may be a situation where a faculty member will have their camera on and have the Zoom session going during their class so that students who may be under quarantine orders or for other reasons that are unable to come to campus can attend the class,” Chief Information Services Officer Robert Hughes said.
Instructors have not implemented the Hyflex model of teaching for the winter or spring 2022 semesters, but the classes can be changed at the professor’s request.
Class availability could change with Hyflex, allowing for more students to enroll in a class.
“It opens up our facilities to really eliminate any limitations regarding classroom capacity,” Hughes said.
Honors history professor Senya Lubisich piloted the program in October 2019 and said she believes that Hyflex could bring more students to Citrus.
“If you are out of the area but Citrus has a class that you want to take, you have the option to log into Hyflex and participate and then you can definitely attract students from other areas,” Lubisich said. “The ability for us to bring students in would really be wonderful for those programs and students.”
If a class is changed to Hyflex teaching, the label for how the class is taught will also be changed on Wingspan. It will appear the same way the label for synchronous or asynchronous classes appears.
Hughes said that every class on campus was given cameras and had the ability to broadcast their classes via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
The funding for the cameras and their installation came from the federal government emergency relief fund from the CARES Act. On May 4, the Board of Trustees reviewed a purchase order from March that allocated $185,971.41 for Meeting Owl cameras.
Citrus wanted to incorporate this to allow more flexible schedules for students who found it difficult to attend class in-person.
Lubisich’s History 103C class was part of the study. Nine students in the class volunteered to attend virtually in room IS 109 while the rest of the class attended in person in room TC 123. The class was broadcasted using the Meeting Owl device.
“Audio is the hard part just because the microphones pick up everything,” Lubisich said. “Students who were online said it was really distracting because if someone opened a package or if somebody was going through their notebook, or their backpack you would hear all of that.”
A November 2019 staff memo said seven out of nine students that participated online said they would attend a class remotely if they had the opportunity.
The second pilot of a virtual classroom was scheduled for spring 2020, but was not conducted due to COVID-19.
“It was a very, very timely project because it was just a few months later, in March (2020), when the pandemic hit, and we had to teach all of our classes remotely,” Hughes said.
