EXPANDING LEARNING SPACES IN HIGHER EDUCATION - UNDERSTANDING A HYFLEX MODEL

摘要

In this paper, we seek to investigate the interplay between space, interaction and learning sequences in a higher education HyFlex learning environment. HyFlex is a model where the course design combines physical and virtual spaces and face-to-face with online learning. Hy stands for hybrid and Flex for flexibility. This certain HyFlex model has been developed at Malmo University during a couple of years, first and foremost within the master program "Communiation for Development" (http://wpmu.mah.se/comdev). In Teacher Education 90 credits, students can, in some courses, choose if they want to attend lectures and seminars on campus or online. Here we use the HyFlex Model as a more specific conceptualization of blended learning. It focuses on flexibility, design and agency. The paper presents an on-going research project and aim to discuss some tentative findings focusing on different aspects of spaces and interaction in a HyFlex learning environment using the theoretical perspective Designs for learning. This perspective offers a way to understand space with the concepts designs for learning and designs in learning. Designs for learning highlight the conditions for learning as institutional framing, norms, curricula, learning resources and didactic design. Designs in learning focus on how both teacher and students design their learning path during a learning sequence. In relation to a HyFlex learning environment, designs for learning helps us to understand how different spaces, both in the physical and virtual room, constitutes essential elements in communication and interaction. With designs in learning we could deepen our understanding of how different spaces become resources in a meaning-making process. Research on blended/HyFlex learning environments in higher education concerns several different aspects, like course design and student choices. Our focus in this paper is the interplay between different kinds of spaces and interaction i a HyFlex design. This area, especially with focus on higher education, is somewhat under researched The aim with our study is to investigate the interplay between space, interaction and learning sequences in a higher education HyFlex learning environment. The following research questions are asked: What kinds of different spaces are connected in a HyFlex model? How are the spaces designed? And how do the participants interact in the different spaces? The case study combines video observation with interviews. The tentative results in this paper, however, stems from observations of the streamed material. The material is analysed from a multimodal perspective focusing on both visual and auditory information and connects as well as the participants use a variety of semiotic resources, including space in their communication. In the results we identify five (or more) different kinds of spaces that are designed in this model; the physical setting at campus, the space the facilitator designs for the streaming, the virtual space that the remote students meet when they connect with their laptop, the connection between several different space outside campus and a parallel chat space. The results show how a HyFlex learning environment in higher education offers flexibility in time and space for students. Especially from a teacher perspective this flexibility comes with a hybridization of spaces. A hybrid and flexible pedagogic environment includes complex settings and demands collaboration between the lecturing teacher and the facilitator. This HyFlex model points towards team teaching but also raises questions about power, design and agency.