Creating Interaction in a Flex Environment

One of the greatest challenges in developing a Flex course is designing learning activities that provide equivalent experiences to synchronous and asynchronous learners. Students tend to perceive that asynchronous learning provides less interaction than face-to-face learning (Platt et al., 2014; Shrestha et al., 2021) and so it's critical that instructors of Flex courses account for that perception when planning learning activities. We must not only be intentional about creating opportunities for interaction among synchronous and asynchronous students, but we must also be transparent about the methods and reasons for interaction as well as encourage and support that interaction.

There are a variety of online platforms and educational technology tools that can support the interactions that you design for your course; however, as you design for interaction across modalities, focus first on how those interactions align with your course outcomes and how to create equivalent experiences for each modality. Once you're comfortable with the alignment and equivalency of your design, the next step is to choose the tools that will best support that design. The instructional designers are available to help you find the technology that will best fit your teaching style and course plans.

Interaction Among Students

Planning interaction in a Flex course is more complex than in a single-modality course given that the interaction must be effective and equivalent across an in-person, synchronous-online, and asynchronous-online environment. Accordingly, we list below some common ways that students interact with each other in a course setting. For each interactive activity, we include a short description of the activity, a list of tools that could be used to support that activity, and a table with suggestions for how that interaction might be implemented in each modality. Note that the tools listed are common tools to which we all have free access, and the lists are not exhaustive.

Asynchronous Discussion Forum

Description: Discussion forums provide opportunities for students to reflect on course content, synthesize ideas, and share perspectives and experiences with classmates.

Tools: Canvas Discussions, Flip (video or audio only)

Implementation

Instructor Role	Student Role
	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Post discussion prompt online. Provide clear instructions and expectations. Facilitate the discussion as appropriate. Provide grading and feedback.	This discussion forum would be hosted online and all students, regardless of modality, would post and reply to the same forum outside of synchronous class time.

Class Discussion

Description: Like discussion forums, class discussions allow students to process the course content and share perspectives. These discussions tend to be more impromptu than the online discussion forums mentioned above.

Tools: Zoom, Panopto

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
Instructor role	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Prompt and facilitate the discussion while recording it in Zoom. Post the Zoom recording (Panopto video). Encourage asynchronous students to participate. Some options for asynchronous participation include: Asking that they add comments to the Panopto video chat at appropriate points during the video. Create an asynchronous assignment out of the discussion prompt(s) for students to respond to and submit. Embed the video of the class discussion in a discussion forum and ask students to reply in the discussion board. Monitor the asynchronous discussion responses and summarize the discussion in an announcement or during a later class meeting.	Participate in person.	Participate over Zoom through verbal responses, typing in the chat, using annotation, or emoji.	View the recording of the class discussion and contribute responses to the Panopto video chat, assignment, or asynchronous discussion board, depending upon the instructor's instructions.

Backchannel Discussion

Description: A backchannel discussion is a written conversation between students that supplements the spoken conversation between an instructor and students during a class session. The backchannel can provide a place for shared comments, reflections, questions, resources, and support. It is typically student-led, voluntary, and not graded. An instructor can decide how much or little they'd like to engage in the backchannel, perhaps addressing some of the content verbally during synchronous class time, adding written or video comments outside of class time, and/or leaving it as a space entirely for student communication.

Tools: Zoom chat, Canvas Discussions, Teams, Discord

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Provide a space for the backchannel discussion to occur either continuously through the term or on a session-by-session basis. Address questions and comments in the backchannel during class time and/or asynchronously. Consider delegating a student to monitor the backchannel during class time to help the instructor recognize key questions and comments that need to be addressed.	Contribute to the backchannel discussion online at any time.

Polling and Review

Description: Polling and reviewing can be a fun and low-stakes way for students to practice retrieving new content, calibrate how well they understand course material, and/or share their perception of the class with their instructor. Polling and reviewing can enable instructors to gauge learners' comprehension and general feelings about the class.

Tools: Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, Slido, Kahoot!, JeopardyLabs, Zoom Polling, Panopto embedded quizzes

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
Instructor role	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Create poll or review questions. Lauch the questions during class time. Post the link or QR code for asynchronous students. Monitor asynchronous responses and summarize responses in an announcement or during a later class meeting.	Participate in class using a phone or laptop, or pair up with a classmate who has a phone or laptop.	Participate during class time using a phone or laptop.	Participate in the poll or quiz asynchronously.

Think-Pair-Share (or other paired activities)

Description: Think-pair-share is an effective strategy for encouraging students to actively engage with the learning material. First, an instructor poses a question or problem and allows for students to think about it independently and write a few notes (Think). Next, students pair up with a partner and discuss their ideas (Pair). Finally, they share highlights of their discussion with the class (Share).

Tools: Zoom breakout rooms, Canvas Discussions, Padlet, Collaborative documents (Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Zoom Whiteboard)

Implementation

Instructor role

Student Role

Synchronous in person

Synchronous online

Asynchronous

Explain question, problem, or prompt and post prompt in the Zoom chat (link or text) or through Zoom screen sharing (if posting through screen sharing, ask students to screen capture prompt before moving into breakout groups).

Think: Provide a few minutes for synchronous students to think about the prompt and write down notes independently. Ask asynchronous students to pause the video to engage in the "Think" activity.

Organize zoom breakout rooms while students are participating in the “Think” part of the activity.

Pair: After students complete the "Think" part of the activity, encourage synchronous students to pair up with a classmate for discussion. Encourage asynchronous students to add comments to the Panopto video chat or participate in an asynchronous discussion through Canvas or a shared document.

Share: Bring synchronous students back from breakouts and provide an opportunity for them to share with the class. Ask asynchronous students to resume the lecture video to hear the discussion and to add comments to the video chat and/or asynchronous discussion as appropriate.

After independent reflection time and personal notes, students pair up with an in-person classmate or with online classmate in a Zoom breakout room to discuss the prompt. After discussing, share discussion highlights with the class verbally and/or in the Zoom chat.

Pause the video for independent reflection time and personal notes, then engage in posting and replying to an asynchronous discussion forum. Alternatively, asynchronous students could contribute to a shared online document or the Panopto video chat/discussion. Finally, resume the video to hear the synchronous students share their discussion highlights.

Group Work

Description: Sometimes group work consists of quick, low-stakes activities, but other times it might involve more lengthy and complex assignments. Either way, group work can be an effective way to increase engagement and build community in a course. As an instructor, you can set the stage for positive and productive group-work experiences for your students by providing clear instructions, assigning students different roles in the group, monitoring the groups' progress, and collecting feedback from students.

Using collaborative documents within Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace can simplify groupwork logistics in a Flex environment. For example, consider providing students with a link to a shared slide deck and asking each group to work on a slide. With everyone working in the same shared document, you can easily view each group's work in real time. Or for larger projects, ask each group to create their own shared document and share the link with you.

Tools: Zoom and collaborative documents (Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace)

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Explain group assignment and post instructions and expectations in Canvas. Create groups or ask students to find groupmates. Monitor group progress and be available to answer questions and facilitate progress as appropriate. Assess final submission and provide meaningful feedback.	Work with groupmates during class time in person and/or in Zoom breakout rooms and complete group work using collaborative documents.		Work with groupmates asynchronously using collaborative documents and/or meet synchronously over Zoom at a time agreed upon by all group members.

Student Presentations

Description: Student presentations enable students to share their work with their peers and create opportunities to learn from each other as well as provide and receive feedback. These presentations can be accommodated synchronously using Zoom and also posted online and viewed asynchronously using tools such as Panopto, Flip, and YouTube.

Tools: Zoom, Panopto, Flip, YouTube

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Explain during class and post in Canvas the presentation instructions and expectations. Be available to answer questions and facilitate progress as appropriate. Assess final submission and provide meaningful feedback.	Present during class time while being recorded through Zoom. Attend classmates' presentations and/or view recordings of asynchronous presentations.		Record presentation and share link with the class. View recordings of classmates' presentations.

Resource Sharing

Description: For some assignments and projects, it might be appropriate for students to share and compile resources that they find helpful and interesting. This might take the form of an annotated bibliography, individually collected data, YouTube videos, etc.

Tools: Collaborative documents (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace), Canvas Discussions, Canvas Pages with student editing enabled, Padlet

Implementation

Instructor role	Student Role
	Synchronous in person	Synchronous online	Asynchronous
Provide a shared space to compile resources as well as guidelines for using that space and the compiled resources.	Contribute resources to online resource-sharing space.

Click Next to explore opportunities for instructor-student interaction.