Chapter 1: Introduction The internet and information communication technologies have increasingly become
standard tools in education, and there has been an explosion in the number of instructional
technologies and the affordances they provide in the learning environment. During the last 2
decades, an increasing number of colleges and universities have included at least some aspect of
online learning into their course offerings in response to the increasing demand for online
instruction (Jaggars & Xu, 2016; Wavle & Ozogul, 2019). As classrooms move from traditional
brick and mortar spaces students of the past grew up with and into a new digital, intangible
space, content, technology, and active learning are poised to converge to support the foundation
of a learner-centered paradigm (Tanis, 2020). As such, educators at all levels can deliver internet
mediated instruction both synchronously and asynchronously in the form of hybrid and online
courses.
Rooted in both traditional and online learning practices, HyFlex teaching and learning
has potential for creating equitable access to instruction while giving institutions the ability to
facilitate continuity of instruction in the event of campus closures (EDUCAUSE, 2020). The
term HyFlex is a portmanteau of hybrid–flexible (Beatty, 2019) used to refer to a specific course
design approach to provide a flexible structure that allows students options for attendance and
participation. Students can choose to participate online, on-site, or any combination of both on a
weekly or topic basis as they need or prefer to participate. This model emerged from work in
traditional and online instructional practices, and there have been other hybrid or blended models
that bear some similarities with HyFlex (Beatty, 2019). Historically, traditional college
instruction has taken place in face-to-face settings with both teachers and students physically
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present on-site and teachers lecturing and using visual presentations as students take notes at
their desks (Bunn et al., 2014). Although blended learning models have historically sought to
incorporate online and face-to-face learning, students’ preferences for attendance and
participation modes have not been a priority until hybrid flexible approaches came along.
