Faculty Guide to Basic HyFlex Teaching

Peabody faculty should remain aware of the potential need to pivot to online or hybrid teaching models as necessitated by changing circumstances. One likely circumstance includes one or more of your students being quarantined after a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to someone with COVID-19. The requisite two-week quarantine will, in the vast majority of cases, be too long for students to miss classes and easily catch up when they return. Below are some guidelines for how to keep teaching in a quarantine situation. 

If you would like 1-1 help with your setup in the classroom, need to balance Hyflex teaching with voice amplification in the classroom, or need to utilize the built-in classroom systems for this purpose, please contact the classroom support team for help with your particular classroom and teaching scenario. Every classroom contains a webcam and tripod for use with the in-room systems or your personal device. If you are teaching in a non-traditional classroom, please visit the Arthur Friedheim Library to borrow a setup for your class.

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If a Small Number of Your Students are Quarantined…

With only one or a small number of students quarantined at once, you should expect to continue to teach your class in person as planned. However, some small changes should allow you to provide accommodations to your quarantined students.

You should plan to utilize Zoom for your quarantined students to attend class. Since you are only using Zoom as an accommodation in this case rather than as the primary teaching environment, the process is different.

You should plan to:

  • Start a Zoom call at the beginning of class on your personal device or the device in the classroom (if you have a USB microphone or webcam attached to the classroom presentation system). This can be an audio-only call. You should ensure that you remain close enough to the microphone to pick up your audio, or attach an external microphone to the Zoom device. Especially if you move around a lot, you may want to use Bluetooth headphones that include an integrated microphone, or borrow a USB microphone solution from the Arthur Friedheim Library.
  • In Zoom, record the class to the cloud in case your student(s) is/are feeling too ill to attend synchronously. The link will be sent to you automatically via email once complete, which you can then share with your students via Canvas. If you would like to set up an automatic connection between Zoom and Canvas to get your recordings to students, please submit a ticket for help from the Learning Innovation team.
  • If feasible in your situation, inform your quarantined student(s) that you will be checking the chat intermittently for their questions, or ask another student in your class to monitor the chat.
  • When questions are asked in the classroom, repeat them clearly before you answer – it will be difficult for students on Zoom or watching the recording to hear anyone who is not close to the microphone.

You should also make arrangements for your student(s) to submit work electronically through Canvas, and be as flexible as possible; remember that these students may be experiencing symptoms.

If More of Your Students, or You Yourself, are Quarantined…

If a significant portion of your class is quarantined, or if you yourself are quarantined, you will need to make arrangements until fewer of your students are quarantined or your quarantine is over. This could mean either utilizing a substitute faculty member for your in-person classes or pivoting to 100% remote until you or a sufficient number of your students can return.

Please coordinate with your Chair and the Senior Associate Dean on the available options in your particular situation.

More Information on the HyFlex Model

While the scenarios covered on this page deal specifically with situations in which the decisions on teaching mode are out of the hands of the students and faculty, the philosophy and implementation of the HyFlex model provides a good foundation and perspective. For more in-depth information on the HyFlex model, please refer to the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s “7 Things You  Should Know About the HyFlex Course Model.” 

Please visit the Learning Innovation team’s site for more information on teaching and learning support, including 1-1 consultations and open office hours.