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approach, I chose a phenomenological design because I wanted to learn directly from
participants without prompting them or limiting them to questions designed by me. If I gave
them a survey, I would have predefined a list or scale with those items I believed were benefits
and
challenges, but that was not my intent. I wanted to hear the nuanced accounts of their
experiences and the meanings they make of those, in the participant’s own voices, and without
my prompting or predefining what they should consider a benefit or a challenge. Phenomenology
was the best suited approach for getting at the essence of the participant’s lived experiences in
HyFlex.
This study has opened a line of inquiry into issues of equity and how HyFlex learning can
help mitigate inequities. Further research would be helpful to learn more about equity in HyFlex.
Another area of inquiry that has opened is the experiences of minoritized students in HyFlex. At
the time of this study, there were no empirical studies looking into the
experiences of students
with disabilities in HyFlex. Although there is some empirical research available about the
experiences of women online, there is much less research about the experiences of student
mothers online, and practically none about their experiences in HyFlex. The same can be said for
empirical research about the HyFlex experiences of students whose native or
primary language is
other than English. Future researchers could improve upon this study by taking a mixed methods
approach and securing a larger sample of participants.
