ActiveFlex: Allowing Student Access and Choice without Sacrificing Engagement and Collaboration

Concurrent Session 10

Brief Abstract

What is ActiveFlex?  HyFlex allows for student choice in method of attendance.  However, engagement and student motivation are often lacking.  What if we could fix that?  ActiveFlex improves upon the HyFlex model by engaging all students in active learning and collaboration regardless of their method of attendance.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Mark Gale, Athens State University

I have worked in the area of information systems and technology for the past 15 years. I have worked in areas related to Web design and development, multimedia production, and instructional design. For he past 7 years, I have also served as an instructional designer. In this role, I have researched various emerging technologies and evaluated their potential in an educational setting. Lastly, I have nearly 5 years of teaching experience in higher education related to the incorporation of technology and design principles in the classroom. This experience has given me a good blend of theoretical and practical knowledge in terms of incorporating technology in higher education. With the rate of technology change in the world today, it is an exciting time that hardly ever has a boring moment.

Co-presenter: Joy Oettel, Athens State University

Additional Authors

Extended Abstract

ActiveFlex is a model that grew out of a HyFlex pilot that had mixed results.  Although HyFlex allowed students to choose their modality of attendance (live in person, synchronous online, asynchronous online), students gravitated towards the asynchronous online option midway through most of the pilot courses.  This frustrated faculty as they didn’t want to lecture to an empty room.

Once the pilot ended, we evaluated the courses that worked and those that didn't and we were able to identify the elements that needed to be included to make the model successful for both students and faculty.  Thus, HyFlex evolved into ActiveFlex which puts a stronger emphasis on active learning and engaging activities as well as collaboration among students regardless of the way they decide to attend class.  The model has proven to be overwhelmingly successful, with the students and faculty that have participated in an ActiveFlex course finding it highly satisfactory.  Recent surveys indicate that more than 85% of student respondents in the ActiveFlex courses want more ActiveFlex in the future, and all of the participating faculty members wanted to continue teaching in the format and to convert more of their courses to the format.  Additional qualitative responses showed that some students may not have succeeded in completing the course without the ActiveFlex component.

In this presentation, we intend to present the ActiveFlex framework along with best practices that we have discovered and implemented over the past year in more than nine unique courses ranging from arts and sciences to education and business.  Some of these courses are multi-section courses taught by seven instructors containing 300 students, while others are smaller classes of 10 students taught by a single instructor.  ActiveFlex has fit seamlessly into them all.  In true ActiveFlex fashion, we will drive the majority of the presentation by playing Kahoot! as we discuss the mechanics and best practices of ActiveFlex.  We will then move into some collaborative work on how to enhance the core activities of ActiveFlex before opening up for questions and answers.  Once this session is complete, you should have the knowledge to begin designing your own ActiveFlex courses in the future.