Evaluating HyFlex at Western Sydney University 2021 : considerations for curriculum and pedagogy

As the higher education world transitions from lockdowns to normalcy, options for online education delivery begin to look more attractive to administrators and educators. What if Zoom and blended learning could be tweaked to enable online education to replace expensive traditional classrooms? Enter HyFlex, an older pedagogy, but now turbocharged by the advent of Zoom, improved learning management systems and contingencies required by COVID-19. The study reports on an evaluation of a trial of HyFlex conducted during the middle of the pandemic in Australia. Results show that stranded overseas students were grateful for access to classroom tutorials, but that this was not the case for other students. A myriad of other problems associated with this trial" collaboration, feedback and technical issues- were all amplified due to HyFlex. While HyFlex could be seen as a panacea for known issues of online delivery, the wider adoption of HyFlex is considered problematic except for specific cohorts of students under extreme circumstances.