Need
Help faculty move beyond replicating a classroom over Zoom and make immediate, realistic course-design decisions for BlendFlex teaching.
Making It Work: BlendFlex as an “Unconventional Materials” Challenge
Making It Work: BlendFlex as an “Unconventional Materials” Challenge
What if faculty stopped treating BlendFlex as a delivery schedule—and started treating it as a design material?
During the rapid COVID-era transition, Nova Southeastern University’s Huizenga College faculty needed to teach students participating both through Zoom and outside scheduled sessions. This faculty-development webinar reframed that constraint as an “unconventional materials” challenge: begin with the whole learning experience, decide which activities belong in synchronous or asynchronous spaces, and build a purposeful sequence before, during, and after the live meeting. Presented to approximately 140 faculty, the session paired a memorable metaphor with a practical process instructors could use immediately while planning more substantial course improvements over time.
AT A GLANCE
- Context
Senior Instructional DesignerNova Southeastern University2020
Solution
Provide a clear framework for determining the appropriate modality and sequencing of learning activities.
Deliverable
A college-wide webinar built around an approachable metaphor, featuring concrete examples and addressing practical course-revision questions.
Impact
Roughly 140 faculty gained a shared, approachable vocabulary for making immediate BlendFlex design decisions during the rapid shift to remote teaching.
Takeaway
Constraints become more workable when they are treated as design choices. Faculty did not need to solve every course problem at once; they needed a way to make smaller improvements now while seeing the larger learning experience they could continue refining.
Methods & Tools: Faculty development · BlendFlex design · Synchronous and asynchronous learning · Learning-sequence design · Zoom