Towards a Ubiquitous Learning Environment

November 2021

Three years ago, a family member of mine decided to pursue a master’s degree with Emporia State University. She chose the program because of its learning design and scheduling flexibility. What made it stand out from other online programs was that all the courses were taught on the ESU campus with regular lectures, and simultaneously broadcast virtually using web conference software. Off-campus students had the option to log in during the class time and participate along with the on-campus students in real time. These lectures were also recorded so that students who could not log in during class time were able to catch up later and participate in the class activities (forums, projects, exams, etc.) asynchronously via Canvas. As a stay-at-home mom with a part-time teaching job, she found the program a good fit for her, especially the student control of learning aspect.

That same year, after nearly a decade of innovation and exploration (thanks to the ongoing efforts of our faculty and staff), NPC already laid a solid foundation for distance learning. The two Title III grant-funded projects, EAGLE and TALON, helped us develop the prototype for a connected learning environment. The use of Moodle LMS was required for both online and on-campus classes. And WebEx became the official web conferencing tool to add to the distance delivery methods. Many instructors had been creatively combining multiple modalities in their teaching. For example, several CTE faculty started to incorporate a WebEx live component in their online asynchronous classes, and a number of Arts and Sciences faculty implemented asynchronous modalities (Moodle + lecture recordings) in their CISCO live classes. With the ESU model in mind, I reached out to several faculty, staff, and administrators, and we started some initial conversations about an ubiquitous learning model which could potentially accommodate all learners, on campus and off campus, synchronously and asynchronously, anytime, anywhere, regardless of their learning preferences. A year later, Dr. Brian Beatty of San Francisco State University coined the term "HyFlex."

When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, the college was forced into an emergency remote instruction mode. When on-campus instruction was not an option, four online delivery models (see Remote Instruction Matrix) were recommended: (1) Moodle-only Model, (2) Pre-recorded Model, (3) Live Videoconferencing Model, and (4) Mixed Model. Due to the emergency nature and insufficient time and resources for preparation, the rapid and mass conversion to these models was seen as a quick solution in a less-than-ideal circumstance, not an opportunity for experimenting with a ubiquitous learning model such as HyFlex.

As the college gradually returns to normal and plans for a post-pandemic world, we finally find the opportunity to get a HyFlex pilot ready for Spring 2022. A student-centered model of class delivery, the HyFlex course integrates three learning modalities: in-person (instructor and students in the same classroom), synchronous (on- and off-campus via videoconferencing), and asynchronous online (learning management system + recordings). Students enrolled in the same class have the choice to attend in person, participate through videoconferencing, or watch a recording of the class session, whichever works best for them. Research shows the HyFlex model can help (1) serve more students in the same physical space, (2) increase student enrollment (by appealing to students’ desire to control aspects of their learning environment), (3) increase student retention (by providing student participation flexibility), and (4) prepare for business continuity in the event of a natural disaster or pandemic. While this model provides the most flexibility for students, it can be challenging for instructors because they need to pay attention to and plan for multiple audiences - to ensure the quality of learning for students participating via different modalities is consistent. Effectively teaching with this model requires much more planning than teaching to a regular class or even to an online-only class. In addition, students and support staff will need a good understanding of the concept and process.

The ITCS Department has been working with faculty, TAS, Marketing, Student/Enrollment Services, Institutional Effectiveness and a few other departments to provide support for the pilot instructors, which include one CTE faculty and three Arts and Sciences faculty. Perkins Grant also provided partial funding for faculty training and course development. The pilot instructors will attend the EDUCAUSE HyFlex Learning Lab this year, and engage in best practices and evaluation of the project. This will be a collaborative effort to test a model for ubiquitous learning, along with other initiatives such as the Open Textbook Project designed to make learning more accessible and equitable. We hope to see some meaningful data out of the pilot next year, and we look forward to your input as we move forward.

Wei Ma, PhD

Dean of Instructional Innovation