Pandemic Response: Hybrid-flexible Course Delivery for General Education Computer Science Courses

Using the Hybrid-Flexible course delivery model (HyFlex), instructors typically build content for both a fully online course and for a 'face-to-face' classroom environment. HyFlex courses use both learning environments in tandem, sharing the same learning outcomes each week so that students can move between the online and in-person experiences in the course seamlessly. However, the HyFlex methodology can also be used for courses that do not have an in-person component to them. In these cases, HyFlex provides students with flexibility in the delivery of the course to allow them to choose learning options that align with their preferred learning styles and activity types. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked significant interest in the HyFlex course model. It allows colleges and universities to temporarily close or reduce in-person attendance and apply social distancing policies to classrooms to reduce the risk of disease spread among the student and faculty populations. Thus, it enables students and instructors who prefer instruction in a physical classroom the opportunity to safely do so. This paper covers the adaptation of a course, CSCI 159: Computer Science Problem Solving, to the HyFlex model. This paper presents the strategies used and the lessons learned about how to effectively instruct general education computer sciences courses using the HyFlex course model.