Keeping Classes Flexible

Photo by David Norris

BY LANCE SCHWARTZ • CHIEF COMMUNICATION OFFICER

The landscape at Bethany Lutheran College didn’t look markedly different in August 2020 compared to a typical fall semester. Students were moving into residence halls with parents helping lug suitcases and compact refrigerators through the hallways. The academic days are different yet much the same. A chapel service still happens every weekday morning although worshippers are physically distanced and hymns are sung from behind facial coverings. The bands and choirs still rehearse on a daily basis. The College is indeed open and in session.

While much of the routine is familiar, just glancing into Bethany’s classrooms, the scenery does have a somewhat different feel. In some rooms, half of the desks and chairs are gone. In larger lecture halls, many of the permanently-affixed chairs are marked for no use. Yet, even with the restrictions, nearly all of Bethany’s upper-division courses are open for all students to attend in person, and freshman-level courses are accessible for face-to-face learning to about three quarters of students. In some infrequent situations, where class enrollment exceeds mandated room capacity, students are asked to rotate into a synchronous (live, real-time, online) learning environment one class period per week.

But, in fall 2020, there are many students who simply don’t have the option to be on campus due to a variety of circumstances ranging from not being able to enter the United States to some students feeling more comfortable learning online during the pandemic. And as the pandemic drags on, the virus has directly affected some Bethany students while forcing others into quarantine.

College leadership, taking all of these scenarios into consideration, began planning early on for the best online learning option for those Bethany students who can’t be in the classroom, on campus.

The hybrid class delivery system Bethany is utilizing is referred to as HyFlex. The HyFlex model is built upon offering face-to-face classes while also using cameras and microphones in the classrooms so that students who are either choosing, or being forced to learn online, may join classes synchronously from literally anywhere in the world. Nearly all of the Bethany classrooms have been adapted and equipped to deliver remote learning. The classes are recorded so that asynchronous (on demand) learning is also an option for students who are currently too many time zones away from Minnesota to join a live class. The arrangement provides a high-quality educational experience whether the student is on campus or not.

Dr. Jason Lowrey is Bethany’s Vice President for Academic Affairs. He collaborated with several faculty and staff members to bring HyFlex online. He explained.

“HyFlex was developed as far back as 2003, and was designed to help adult learners who wanted to return to college after a time away. The model was created to provide students with the choice of brick and mortar learning, synchronous, or asynchronous learning.”

An education class taught by Dr. Carrie Pfeifer broke out into virtual groups with some faceto-face interaction while others joined in online for discussion.

Photo by David Norris

Lowrey specifically commended the team of Julie Kjeer (Dean of the Faculty), John Sehloff (Director of Institutional Technology), and Kevin Zimmerman (Director of Online Learning) who collectively began working on this model immediately after the close of the spring 2020 semester. Zimmerman developed videos for the faculty to view over the summer to prepare them for the intensive HyFlex training that took place in late July. The College offered three training sessions that helped faculty in the use of Zoom (video conferencing platform), integrating their teaching methods into this system, as well as learning the technological aspects of HyFlex.

And while, ultimately, HyFlex was chosen as the delivery system that best fits Bethany’s needs, other options were considered according Lowrey.

“We, actually, looked at upwards of ten models. As we dug into the pros and cons of each, three ideas came to the forefront. We considered intensive eight-week block modules in face-to-face settings, fully asynchronous delivery, and the HyFlex model.

Ultimately, HyFlex became the obvious choice because of three factors—the diversity of learning on the BLC campus, the fact that students would not be able to get to campus from other countries, as well as the uncertainty of the length of COVID’s impact on everything.”

The HyFlex model has been working well and perhaps its biggest benefit is the flexibility it offers learners. Yet, Bethany’s mantra has always been the personal interaction and mentoring that takes place on the campus in Mankato. Lowrey expressed some concern with the limitations the system imposes on the College’s ability to carry out that piece of a Bethany education.

“It’s frustrating to lose some of the face-to-face communication with students—no question about it. But in this climate of COVID restrictions, we believe this is the best way to meet with students—where they’re at whether that’s a comfort level with being in class, their tolerance for the pandemic, or being forced to learn remotely.”

And Lowrey admits that the learning curve was steep for some professors who were not used to online learning. For a college that’s used to offering nearly all classes face-to-face, the process to implement HyFlex can be taxing for many instructors. There are additional steps to a normal classroom session including capturing video and uploading it to a safe location for students to access the content.

But Lowrey said the Bethany faculty really embraced the situation and he noted that almost unanimously, the faculty realized this was the best alternative to reach students at this time.

“From the teaching standpoint, it’s not perfect, at least not yet. All of the Bethany faculty treasure the face-to-face environment, but we continue to find better ways to meet our students’ needs in this multimodal manner. We all want to get back to ‘normal’ in-person teaching, but everyone has been exceptionally adaptive and agreeable and are willing to do what they can to serve our students well."

Bethany’s ability to transition to the HyFlex model was aided by the fact that the entire campus was forced into online learning last spring when the pandemic arrived in the United States.

Lowrey explained, “Because we were able to move quickly to exclusively online courses in March, the entire campus was able to better understand the components of the HyFlex model. This experience last spring helped the faculty to gain more understanding about the needs of learners within a different modality. The positive feedback from the students, at the time, allowed us to maximize the opportunity to move to the HyFlex system.”

Bethany students have been very open, accepting, and adaptable to the hybrid format in fall 2020 and as the semester progressed and COVID numbers continued to increase, more and more students found the shift to online very convenient.

The HyFlex model required substantial technology improvements on the campus, and the College was fortunate to have a long-time supporter pay for the six-figure upgrades by way of a significant gift.

And while the model addressed the needs of a campus during the pandemic quite well, it could also provide the basis for new ventures as Bethany potentially partners with like-minded institutions to provide courses not offered on the BLC campus, or perhaps to keep some of Bethany’s courses available in online format.

In the meantime, Bethany is thankful for the blessing of technology that in prior decades was not available. Without these tools, the College would most likely not have been able to operate so smoothly through the challenges of the pandemic.