Director of Southeast Online and Dual Credit Southeast Missouri State University Cape Girardeau, Missouri
COVID-19 forced institutions to think and act differently. Southeast Missouri State University launched a HyFlex pilot with 100 sections in fall 2020. AY350 (Animal Reproduction) is one course that converted to HyFlex and offered two sections in the pilot. The objective of this study was to determine if students were more successful in HyFlex courses compared to the traditional course, grades were compared from 2019 and 2020.
A survey of Chief Online Officers identified that institutions on average converted more than 1500 sections as an emergency response to the pandemic (Garrett, et al., 2020). HyFlex is one approach institutions used to provide more flexible learning opportunities for students. In a HyFlex course, students can choose to learn in face-to-face, fully online, or synchronously online (Beatty, 2019). Research on student success in Hyflex is scant, however early research shows no significant difference in student success across modalities (Rhoads, 2020).
Using a One Way T-test, we analyzed letter grade outcomes for students who enrolled in traditional (n=25) mode to those that enrolled in the HyFlex (n=44) modality. Findings show an increase in “A” and “B” course grades and a decrease in “C” grades, and conflicts with the Rhoads (2020) research which found no significant difference. Additionally, no students failed the HyFlex section(s). Specific variables of Test 3 (p< 0.02) and Final exams (p< 0.002) contributed to significant grade changes. Overall, using a traditional grade point average (GPA) scale where A=4.0, B=3.0, etc. the HyFlex course GPA mean was 3.269 and face-to-face 2.65 (p=0.002).
Future research is planned to explore student success in HyFlex across the institution. If similar findings correlate with the initial study of AY350, additional questions should be considered to determine if grade distribution shift was incremental and why increases were seen in the second half of the semester.
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