One University’s Hybrid-Flexible ‘Studyflex’ Course Experience in Melbourne, Australia: Lessons Learned and Further Opportunities and Challenges in the Wake of COVID19

This Chapter sets out the experience in a university in Australia, where five subjects were designed in a flexible hybrid format. Here the students were encouraged to navigate and create their own unique hybrid learning pathway via online or on-campus mode and to alternate between various combinations of the two. In essence, the curriculum model, conceptualised and deployed using educational design research and originally titled “StudyFlex”, allowed students to self-determine their own bespoke hybrid journey, rather than the educator pre-determining a singular hybrid learning pathway through the subject. This central characteristic distinguished StudyFlex from most other hybrid or blended learning models deployed at that time in our local contexts.

The Chapter goes further, however, building upon the StudyFlex trial and the insights gained from participating educators, their students and online analytics derived from testing in contrasting contexts as part of that trial (Colasante, Bevacqua & Muir, 2020). Specifically, the discussion extends to identifying new and contemporary opportunities and challenges posed by “Hybrid-Flexible” (HyFlex) models like StudyFlex, including structural, socio-cultural, demographic and discipline-specific issues propelled to prominence by the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact upon student satisfaction and student performance. The work is timely given that many universities have provided students with various hybrid delivery options in order to accommodate pandemic public health restrictions. Early signs are that there will be significant post-pandemic demand for high quality hybrid delivery. The ultimate contention of the Chapter, therefore, is that there is a pressing need to continue to research, test and refine the implications of HyFlex initiatives like StudyFlex for students and their educators.