Universities Finland (UNIFI) recently published a blog post written by me on the topic of so-called hybrid/blended/HyFlex teaching. In the blog, I go through some of my own experiences on organising hybrid teaching in the past two years. I also draw on what I have seen, for example through the education of my children during the COVID pandemic in Finland.
Overall, my feeling is that while it certainly is possible to design different types of hybrid or flexible courses and content, it requires much more resources and care than one would think. What makes things complicated is that most of the work required to make things run smoothly happens completely out of sight, behind the curtains, and is therefore invisible to the participants. This, in turn, brings up the possibility of a large gap between participant expectations and teacher realities. For example, I have received numerous requests from students to open a “hybrid window” into my teaching, since “it is so easy”. What is not visible to the participant is how destructive such windows can be for the teacher’s concentration and other face-to-face participants’ experience, and the many, many things related to technology that need to go just right in order for the window to work. On top of this, hybrid or blended teaching also requires careful re-thinking of the pedagogical approach – again something which seems to be largely invisible to the participants.
I don’t know how higher education will solve these gaps between expectations and realities, but I do know that we will see a lot more discussion surrounding the topic in the coming years.
Digital Wilderness 