Improved HyFlex Course Design Utilizing Live Online and

On-demand Courses

Tetsuro Kakeshita

Computing Division, Saga University, Honjo, Saga, 840-8502, Japan

Keywords: Online Education, Hybrid Course, Live Online Course, On-demand Course, Face-to-Face Course, HyFlex

Course.

Abstract: HyFlex (Hybrid-Flexible) courses can provide flexibility to respond to student needs to provide both online

and face-to-face courses at the same time. However, the support staff is necessary to run a HyFlex class to

provide live streaming of a face-to-face lecture since the teacher has to focus on giving a lecture and

responding to student questions. In this paper, we propose a new implementation of the HyFlex course so that

the teacher can implement a HyFlex class without the support staff. The improved HyFlex course utilizes live

online courses and on-demand courses. The teacher first records and edits the on-demand video before the

class. Students watch the video in the class regardless of whether they are at home or school. The teacher

launches the online conference system, such as Zoom or Webex, at the class to respond to questions and

comments from the students. The students can make questions and comments using chat or audio provided

by the online conference systems. They can quickly have a response from the teacher since the teacher focuses

on answering the questions and comments during the class. We run the improved HyFlex course in two

different types of classes at our university. Approximately 85% of the students are satisfied with the improved

HyFlex course.

1 INTRODUCTION

Online education has become popular under COVID-

19 (Gaudiot and Kasahara, 2020). They can be

classified into the online live (synchronous) course,

on-demand (asynchronous) course, and hybrid course.

They all have unique educational characteristics

compared to a traditional face-to-face course

(Anderson, 2009; Harasim, 2017).

Many of the universities have shifted to provide

online courses in face of COVID-19. Although many

students are satisfied with the online courses, some

students and parents strongly prefer to take face-to-

face courses. The Minister of Education of Japan

requested the implementation of hybrid courses at

Japanese universities.

The purpose of this paper, i.e. the research

question, is to develop a course mode that can satisfy

these conflicting demands. The designed course

should be implemented without support staff.

We propose an improved HyFlex course, which is

a special type of course mode within the hybrid

course, in this paper. The original HyFlex course

(Beatty, 2019) needs support staff to provide live

streaming of the class other than the teacher at the

class, which is quite difficult at the usual university

due to limitation of staff and budget. The proposed

HyFlex course can be operated without support staff,

while the students can freely choose face-to-face and

online courses.

The improved HyFlex course utilizes both the live

online course and the on-demand course so that we

can take advantage of both course modes. In the

improved HyFlex class, the instructor prepares the

lecture video before the class and focuses on

answering questions during the class. Students watch

the lecture videos on demand regardless of where

they are in the class or at home.

This allows for repeated viewing of the lecture

video at a playback speed that matches the student’s

preference. Also, as in the case of online live classes,

real-time responses to questions from students, and

instruction using the screen-sharing function can be

realized. We run the improved HyFlex course at two

classes at our university and obtained strong support

from the students.

104

Kakeshita, T.

Improved HyFlex Course Design Utilizing Live Online and On-demand Courses.

DOI: 10.5220/0010470901040113

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2021) - Volume 2, pages 104-113

ISBN: 978-989-758-502-9

Figure 1: Number of New Cases of COVID-19 Infection in Japan (as of December 31, 2020).

This paper is organized as follows. Section 2

explains the impact of COVID-19 on college

education in Japan. We shall summarize the

characteristics of various course modes in Section 3

including face-to-face, live online, on-demand, and

hybrid courses. A survey of the related works is also

discussed in this section. We shall next propose our

improved HyFlex course and explain the

implementation of the course without support staff.

The evaluation result of the proposed course mode is

demonstrated in Section 5 at two different types of

classes: one is a lecture and the other is an experiment

using Microsoft Access. Approximately 85% of the

students are satisfied with the improved HyFlex class

design at both classes. Finally, we shall conclude the

paper in Section 6.

2 IMPACT OF COVID-19 TO

COLLEGE EDUCATION IN

JAPAN

Figure 1 represents the number of new cases of

COVID-19 infection in Japan (Ministry of Health,

Labour and Welfare of Japan, 2021). The number of

COVID-19 infections is increasing in 2021 so that the

Japanese government declared an emergency state in

the Tokyo metropolitan area on January 8, 2021.

The first cases of COVID-19 were identified in

March 2020, and the number of cases has increased

since then. As a result, the Japanese government

asked all elementary, secondary, and high schools to

close that was scheduled to start the new school year

in April. Many universities postponed the start of the

new semester by two to four weeks. This period was

used for the preparation of online education, and most

of the Japanese universities started online classes in

late April or May 2020.

As of May 2020, some of the online classes at

Japanese universities were live online classes using

Zoom or on-demand classes. However, many classes

were conducted only by uploading pdf documents to

websites containing education contents and

homework instructions.

The latter class format was introduced mainly to

reduce internet traffic and to allow university faculty

members who were not familiar to teach online

classes. However, student evaluations were quite low,

and as faculty members became accustomed to online

classes, they were replaced by live online classes or

on-demand classes.

Many faculty members were confused by the first-

experienced online classes, and there was much

confusion due to the lack of guidance and support

from the university.

To address these issues, the National Institute of

Informatics (NII) launched the Cyber symposium to

share the status of initiatives for distance learning at

universities starting in April 2020. The symposium

series has been held every two weeks, and the author

also made a presentation at the symposium

(Kakeshita, 2020). This paper is an extended version

of the approaches proposed in this symposium.

At the end of March 2020, a Facebook group was

established to share knowledge and information on

what college faculty should and willing to do in

response to the impact of COVID-19. The group is

run on a volunteer basis by 17 faculty members

belonging to different universities and has about

20,000 members, mostly university faculty members.

The group has received more than 5,000 postings and

40,000 comments since its beginning. Recently, the

group has been actively exchanging knowledge and

opinions through postings and comments on online

education at a frequency of 8.9 postings/day.

Although universities and faculty members were

confused in May 2020, they understood that all

Improved HyFlex Course Design Utilizing Live Online and On-demand Courses

105

universities were in a similar situation in June 2020.

This led to the exchange of knowledge for improving

online classes and the exchange of opinions on the

prospects for university education after COVID-19.

In Japan, some students and their parents are

strongly requesting the resumption of face-to-face

classes at universities as well as at elementary and

secondary schools, as is happening at universities in

the US, the UK, and other countries. Some of them

lobbied the Prime Minister and the Minister of

Education. As a result, the Minister of Education

requested Japanese universities to resume face-to-

face classes and to implement hybrid classes despite

the increasing number of COVID-19 infections.

Some advanced Japanese universities are making

effort to implement hybrid classes in response to this

situation. These efforts also envision university

education after the convergence of COVID-19. This

research is motivated to contribute to society in this

context.

3 CHARACTERISTICS OF

VARIOUS TYPES OF COURSE

MODE

In this section, we summarize the characteristics of

conventional face-to-face classes and various online

class formats (Anderson, 2009; Harasim, 2017). The

characteristics described in this section are also based

on the experiences not only of the author but also of

the university faculty members who participated in

the Facebook group introduced in Section 2. We shall

also discuss the related works in this section.

3.1 Face-to-Face Course

The primary advantage of a face-to-face class is the

ease of communication between teachers and students,

as well as between students. These communications

include not only in-class communications but also

out-of-class informal communications, which play an

important role in building human relationships,

especially for freshmen.

In addition to this, there are some types of

education, such as art and medicine, that require

special facilities and equipment that are difficult for

students to prepare by themselves, and for which

effective instruction may be difficult to achieve

without face-to-face interaction depending on the

educational content.

Furthermore, considering the possibility of

cheating and ensuring fairness, regular and entrance

examinations should be administered in a face-to-face

mode. Unless special facilities and examiners are

prepared to take these points into account, online

examinations are considered to be inappropriate.

There are many works to compare the educational

outcome of online courses and face-to-face courses.

Recent work indicates that no significant difference

was observed between these two course modes, while

there is a difference in terms of the engagement of the

students between the two modes (Basu, 2021).

3.2 Live Online Course

In a Live online course, the teacher delivers live

streaming of the class using an online conference

system such as Zoom or Webex. Students can attend

the class from anywhere as long as they have a PC

connected to the Internet. By reducing the restrictions

on the location of the class, it becomes possible to

reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection, as well as

reduce transportation time and cost to and from

school. Online classes also make it possible to

provide education to a larger number of students than

face-to-face classes.

Teachers can give a lecture even if they are not

physically at school. It is also possible for multiple

professors from multiple universities to collaborate

on a single class. It will also be possible to invite

external teachers within the country and from abroad

to give online lectures without travel costs. In this

sense, it can be expected to improve the quality of

education by introducing online education.

By using a live online course, it is easy to interact

with the teacher by asking questions and asking for

advice in real-time, rather than a one-way class like at

a traditional online university. This is important for

activating communication between students and

teachers and increasing the effectiveness of

education. With the implementation of live online

classes, the number of questions from students using

private chats has significantly increased during

classes.

Although it is necessary to overcome the problem

of the time difference, it will be possible for Japanese

students to study online at foreign universities and for

foreigners to study online at Japanese universities.

There are a certain number of students who are in

the hospital or who are withdrawn or not attending

school. Online classes can be utilized for these

students to provide opportunities to receive an

education.

In exercises using PC (e.g., programming

education), students can present their PC screens to

the teacher for consultation using the screen sharing

CSEDU 2021 - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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function. This allows the teacher to guide while

accurately understanding the student's situation.

Furthermore, by providing the teaching situation to

other students, it is possible to answer similar

questions at the same time.

In an exercise class, breakout sessions can also be

utilized to facilitate communication and learning

among students and to make group work more

effective.

3.3 On-demand Course

In an on-demand course, the teacher creates a lecture

video of the class and the students watch the video to

learn. Unlike the live online course, students cannot

ask and answer questions in real-time, but they can

communicate with other students and teachers

through chat rooms, forums, and e-mail.

One of the advantages of an on-demand course is

that students can freely choose not only where to

watch the video but also when to watch it. This will

make it possible to provide education to a large

number of students, although it is necessary to

establish a (human and/or IT) system for responding

to questions and answers from students and grading

reports. On the other hand, a certain number of

students tend to accumulate lecture videos without

watching them because of these characteristics.

When students watch a lecture video, they can

repeat it as many times as necessary to deepen their

understanding. Besides, if PC operations are

demonstrated and recorded on a video, students can

operate their PCs while watching the video, so that

detailed operations can be effectively conveyed.

Furthermore, students can choose the playback speed

of the video according to their understanding speed.

This makes it easier for them to concentrate on the

explanation of the teacher.

It is sometimes difficult for students to have a

high-speed internet connection at home. In such a

case, the students can download the on-demand video

to their PC and watch it in an offline mode. In this

way, students can watch the class videos smoothly

even with a low-speed internet connection.

From the teacher's viewpoint, the advantage of an

on-demand course is that the lecture video can be

recorded at a convenient time for the teacher and can

be edited as needed. Through editing the video, it

becomes possible to add narration, background music,

subtitles, etc. Unnecessary parts can also be removed

to create high-quality educational content.

There is a case that part-time teachers are giving

lectures at universities. Some of them even have the

same lecture at different universities. An on-demand

education is suitable for this case since they can create

lecture videos to use at different universities. Then

they do not even need to go to universities.

By utilizing on-demand education, it is possible to

create opportunities for people to return to the

university to study advanced technology and liberal

arts even after they have graduated from university

and entered the workforce. This is desirable from the

viewpoint of lifelong learning and recurrent

education for technical personnel.

3.4 Hybrid Course

The definition of a hybrid course is not necessarily

fixed, but there are three major types: HyFlex course,

blended course, and distributed course.

The HyFlex course (Beatty, 2019) is typically

implemented by live streaming of a regular face-to-

face course. Students can freely choose to take the

course either in face-to-face or online modes. On the

other hand, the teacher needs to be aware of both face-

to-face and online students at the same time during

the class and needs to answer questions from both

types of students. Since this places a heavy burden on

the teacher, the support staff is necessary to operate

the live streaming operation.

A blended course is a method that uses both face-

to-face and online course modes for each class in

consideration of educational effectiveness. Students

are not allowed to choose between face-to-face and

online classes.

In the Distributed course, the same class is

conducted in both face-to-face and online modes.

Half of the students are divided into groups, and when

one group is taking the face-to-face course, the other

group takes the online course. Such assignments can

be flipped to maintain fairness. The main purpose of

this method is to reduce the number of students taking

the face-to-face class, thus this is meant to secure the

social distance associated with COVID-19. However,

it is not a method considering educational

effectiveness.

There is a work on the evaluation of the HyFlex

course from the viewpoint of students (Lakhal, et al.,

2014; Abdelmalak, and Parra, 2016). However, to the

best of the author’s knowledge, there has been no

evaluation from the perspective of the class

administrators or improvements considering the

operational costs. Although the HyFlex course has

many advantages, it is not expected to be widely used

in many educational institutions unless the problem

of operating cost is resolved.

Improved HyFlex Course Design Utilizing Live Online and On-demand Courses

107

4 IMPROVED HyFlex COURSE:

A PROPOSAL

As explained in Section 3, face-to-face courses and

online courses have different characteristics. HyFlex

course is the most suitable model for flexibly

changing the class format according to the COVID-

19 infection status and flexibly responding to the

requests of students and parents. The major problem

to widely implement the HyFlex course is that

support staff are required at each class. However, it is

quite difficult for many universities to ensure a

required number of such support staff.

Typical HyFlex course is based on face-to-face

courses and has been implemented as an online

extension of face-to-face teaching. On the other hand,

the improved HyFlex course proposed in this paper is

based on online courses and is designed to be used for

face-to-face classes as well.

This is implemented as follows.

Teachers record the lecture video before the class.

During a class, students watch the lecture video on

demand, whether they are in the classroom or at home.

Students can raise their hands and ask questions

verbally if they are in the classroom, but they can also

ask questions at any time by using chat. The teacher

focuses on the question and answer session during the

class, and broadcasts the questions and corresponding

answers to every student via chat. In this way, both

face-to-face and online education can be provided

with minimum equipment and teachers.

One issue may arise how to deal with a large

number of students who wish to attend a face-to-face

class. Considering the situation of COVID-19, if a

large number of students wish to attend a face-to-face

class, a single classroom may not provide sufficient

social distance. In such a case, we assign multiple

rooms for the class and distribute students among the

rooms. Each student brings his or her PC to attend the

class. Teachers visit each of the classrooms, in turn,

to answer students' questions during the class.

Figure 2: System Configuration for Lecture Video

Recording and Editing.

Figure 3: Lecture Video Recording and Editing System.

Figure 2 illustrates a system configuration for

video recording and editing in the improved HyFlex

course. Figure 3 shows an example of the

implementation.

A video camera is used to capture the teacher's

face, and a gun microphone is used to record the

teacher's voice. The Windows PC is used to display

lecture materials and the teacher can give a lecture

presentation. In the author’s case, the PC is used to

present PowerPoint slideshows, materials created

using Word, Excel, Access, Visual Studio, Astah

Professional, etc., as well as to display Moodle course

pages. The iPad is used in conjunction with an Apple

pen and a note application to provide handwritten

explanations. The note application also provides

functions to add handwritten explanations to images,

screenshots, pdf documents, etc. so that we do not

need a blackboard at class anymore.

These devices can be switched using a live

switcher to send video and audio to the PC for video

recording. By using a live switcher, it is easy to

realize picture in picture as well as transition effects

when switching screens. In addition to these functions,

the live switcher also provides functions such as

mixing of microphones and video audio, chroma key

composition, the addition of logos and onscreen text,

etc.

By using video editing software to edit the output

and source video, the teacher can freely cut off extra

scenes, add transition effects, and add background

music and narration, making it possible to create

high-quality lecture videos if the teacher takes the

time to do so.

As a minimum configuration, the video recording

and editing system can be implemented only with a

PC connected to the Internet. The teacher connects to

an online conference system such as Zoom or Webex.

The teacher’s presentation on the PC is sent to the

conference system for recording using the screen

sharing function. Simple cut editing can be done by

temporarily pausing the recording.

PC for Video

Editing

Live Switcher

Windows

iPad

Video

Camera

Video

Camera

Windows

Live

Switche

iPa

PC for

Video

Editing

CSEDU 2021 - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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The teacher workload for the proposed method

may be an important issue when it is introduced in

actual classes. In the case of the improved HyFlex

method, the teacher needs to record the lecture video

in advance and edit it if necessary. The teacher’s

workload may change drastically depending on the

amount of time and effort spent editing the video.

In our experience in the process of video

recording using Webex at the author’s office, the

recording was temporarily interrupted by a phone call

from outside, and the recording was resumed after the

call ended. Other than that, the author gives a normal

lecture to produce the recording so that the class time

and the video production time were almost the same.

Although such lecture videos may be redundant,

the students fast-forward through the redundant parts

when playing back the video. Thus, it is not

mandatory to edit the video even if there were some

redundancies in the explanation. Of course, we

recommend creating a higher-quality lecture video by

editing the original recording with video editing

software if time permits.

Figure 4 shows a system configuration during a

class. The video camera for the teacher is used to

distribute the teacher's video and voice. The video

camera for the students is used to distribute the video

and sound in the classroom. Also, by connecting two

microphones to the live switcher, questions from the

students can be delivered by voice. An iPad (or any

PC) can be connected to the live switcher to send

handwritten messages from the instructor.

Figure 4: System Configuration at Class.

Currently, there is also a 360-degree camera with

a microphone and a speaker for conference rooms that

automatically determine the focus target based on a

comprehensive evaluation of the amount of speech,

volume, and other factors using AI, as well as a web

camera with automatic tracking and focusing of the

target. Thus, the variety of devices that can be

connected to this system continues to increase.

The teacher connects the live switcher to the PC

for live streaming and presents the video to the

classroom using an LCD projector. Figure 5 shows an

example scene in a face-to-face class. The streaming

PC is also connected to the Internet so that the videos

and sounds of the teacher and the classroom are

broadcasted to the online students.

The teacher connects to an online conference

system with the streaming PC and checks questions

from the students via chat. Students can ask questions

to the teacher via private chat, and the teacher can

broadcast the questions and answers back to all

students to promote communication between students

and teacher. We can expect to make it easier for

students to ask questions by broadcasting the

questions in anonymized form.

If the teacher runs an LMS such as Moodle, the

teacher can post the chat log after the class for the

convenience of the students.

Figure 5: Face-to-face Class of Improved HyFlex Course.

Figure 6: Teacher’s PC View at Improved HyFlex Course.

Figure 6 represents the screen of a teacher's PC

that displays the lecture video and the chat at the same

time. The notepad application is used to edit questions

and answers so that the teacher copy and paste them

to the chat. By displaying a similar screen on the PC

as that of the teacher, students can easily ask

questions to the teacher while watching the lecture

video,

and at the same time, they can read the

PC for Live

Streaming

Live Switcher

Video

Camera

(Student)

LCD Projector

Video

Camera

(Teacher)

Mic A Mic B

Internet

iPad

Video

Camera

(

Teacher

)

Video

Camera

(

Student

)

Mic B

Mic A

Webex

Chat

Lecture

deo

Note

Improved HyFlex Course Design Utilizing Live Online and On-demand Courses

109

Figure 7: Student Satisfaction of the Improved HyFlex Class.

questions of other students and the teacher's answers

to them in real-time.

5 EVALUATION OF THE

IMPROVED HYFLEX COURSE

We conducted a questionnaire survey to determine

the level of satisfaction of the students who took the

improved HyFlex course for two types of classes:

One is a lecture for freshmen and the other is an

experiment using Microsoft Access. We also

collected students' comments on the reasons for their

responses. With six months of experience in the

various online classes (live and on-demand), the

students have enough experience to evaluate the

improved HyFlex classes.

One of the advantages of the improved HyFlex

course is that the students can choose the replay speed

of the on-demand video. Thus we also collected

preferred replay speed from the students of the two

types of classes.

5.1 Student Evaluation at a Lecture

The target lecture is "Introduction to Information

Network Engineering," which is a class for 177 first-

year students of the Faculty of Science and

Engineering of our university to introduce them to

one of the 12 courses to which they will be assigned

in their second academic year.

Only three students choose to take the face-to-face

class while the remaining students choose to take an

online class. This is mainly because most of the other

lectures are held online and because of the COVID-

19 infection risk. On the day of the survey, 147

students attended the class, and the number of

responses was 135 (response rate: 91.8%).

Figure 7 shows a summary of the results. 85.9%

of the students gave a positive evaluation of very

satisfied or somewhat satisfied. On the other hand,

only 7.4% of the students answered that they were

somewhat or very dissatisfied.

Some of the comments from the students who

gave positive evaluations are listed below. The

readers can confirm that our intention of the improved

HyFlex course is correctly understood and strongly

supported by many of the students.

 I can watch the videos at my own pace and ask

questions to the teacher, so I can understand

the course well.

 I appreciate the real-time question and answer

system.

 I think this class format is very good because

it can meet the various needs of the students.

 I appreciate that there is no need to worry

about the lecture video stopping during live

streaming.

 Some teachers are so absorbed in the class that

they don't notice the questions in the chatbox,

so I think this is a great way to avoid missing

questions.

 The on-demand course has the advantage of

repeated viewing of the video, but I often end

up working on it just before the submission

deadline. The improved HyFlex course

requires students to take the course at a

scheduled time frame, which helps them

maintain their motivation, and I am so

satisfied with the system that I hope it will be

adopted for other lectures as well.

 I can read questions and answers in real-time.

Since the lecture videos are provided in an on-

demand manner so that I can stop and adjust

the playback speed, and Webex allows me to

check attendance information.

50%

36%

48%

10%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Very satisfied

Somewhat satisfied

Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

Somewhat dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

% of Answers

Experiment

Lecture

CSEDU 2021 - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

110

On the other hand, when we reviewed the

opinions of the students who negatively evaluated the

course, many of them told that they would like the

course to be available at any time as an on-demand

class. This implies that there are a certain number of

students who do not recognize the value of

communication including question and answer within

the class.

5.2 Student Evaluation at an

Experiment

We also implemented an improved HyFlex class in

the course "Experiment in Information Systems" for

second-year undergraduate students specialized in

computer science.

The course is composed of extensive assignments

of information system design and implementation

using Microsoft Access. 82 students take the course

and 5 students are regularly taking face-to-face

courses since questions to the teacher are easier for

them than online mode. On the day of the survey, 69

students attended the class, and the number of

responses was 61 (response rate: 88.4%).

Figure 7 shows a summary of the student survey.

83.9% of the students are satisfied with the improved

HyFlex course. The following is a list of comments

from the students.

 I was able to understand the details of Access

operations by following along with the lecture

videos. I also appreciate that the videos can be

played as many times as necessary.

 When I had trouble understanding something,

I went back and watched the lecture videos.

Since I can watch the videos at any time, I will

actively use them.

 By using the screen sharing function to show

my PC screen to the teacher, I was able to

receive precise guidance. Therefore, I was

able to solve my questions immediately.

 The screen sharing function is very helpful for

me because I can see the teacher advising

other students.

 It is very nice to have the chat questions and

answers posted on the lecture Moodle after the

class.

 It is very helpful that the lecture videos

become available earlier at the lecture Moodle

since I can work on the assignment ahead of

schedule.

 I appreciate that the teacher tried to

incorporate our opinions.

In contrast to a regular lecture, in the video of the

experiment, the instructor demonstrates the operation

of a PC using Microsoft Access, etc., and the students

operate the PC themselves while watching the

demonstration. Thus, many students commented that

they made effective use of the on-demand video.

Furthermore, by using the screen-sharing function

to guide while viewing the student's PC screen, the

student can accurately communicate the specific

situation to the teacher. In addition to this, by showing

the instruction to other students, it becomes possible

to provide an opportunity for students to solve the

same questions themselves.

As mentioned in the comments from the students,

the fact that we try to improve the course by listening

to students' opinions is also considered to be a reason

for the high evaluation. This kind of room for

improvement is one of the advantages of the

improved HyFlex class.

We also have some students having negative

evaluations. Their reason is essentially the same as

the comments from the students taking the lecture

explained in Section 5.1.

5.3 Preferred Replay Speed of the

On-demand Video

The improved HyFlex class is also characterized by

the fact that students can freely select the playback

speed when watching the on-demand video. We

conducted a questionnaire survey on the speed at

which the students could most easily understand the

content of the video.

The results are shown in Figure 8 for two types of

class. The preferred replay speed is generally faster

for a lecture than an experiment.

This difference may be due to the nature of the

class. In a normal lecture, it is enough for the students

to understand the teacher's explanation. In the case of

an experiment, however, students need to be able to

practice based on the teacher's explanation. Besides,

students need to be able to operate the PC by

themselves while watching the PC operation by the

teacher. Therefore, students need to listen to the

explanation more carefully in the latter case.

Although special training is required for speed

listening at more than twice the original speed,

increasing the speed to some extent will not only

reduce the watching time but also meet students'

needs and improve their concentration (Allen, 1994).

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Figure 8: Preferred Replay Speed of the On-Demand Video.

6 CONCLUSIONS

We propose the improved HyFlex course design to

provide both face-to-face and online classes operated

without support staff. Since there are many cases

where educational institutions cannot afford to have

enough support staff, the proposed method will be

useful at many institutions to widely provide HyFlex

courses.

We also implemented the proposed HyFlex

course at a regular lecture and an experiment. 85% of

the students positively evaluate the improved HyFlex

course design as explained in Section 5. This implies

that the improved HyFlex course design can be

widely applied to various types of courses.

There are some issues we should consider when

introducing the improved HyFlex course design in

experiments. Students operate their PCs while

watching on-demand videos and chatting. However,

it is difficult to display all the information at once if

the PC has only one screen like a typical notebook

PC. Therefore, we recommend that the students

utilize multi-display systems to increase the

effectiveness of the improved HyFlex course design.

An alternative solution is to utilize a smartphone or a

tablet PC in addition to the student's PC.

Even if pandemics caused by infectious diseases

such as COVID-19 come, online education will not

stop education anymore. Although only 15% of the

Japanese elementary and junior high schools provide

online classes (Cabinet Office, 2020), it is expected

that online education will be promoted in elementary

and junior high schools as well. We can expect that

there are many ways in which universities can support

those schools to introduce online education.

As explained in Section 3, online education has

various educational advantages that cannot be found

in traditional face-to-face education. On the other

hand, certain educational activities are difficult to

realize through online activity only. Therefore, it is

important to utilize both face-to-face and online

methods appropriately.

A certain level of IT skills is required for both

students and teachers to smoothly implement online

education. Schools are also required to have adequate

network infrastructure and PCs. The Japanese

government is promoting the development of

hardware and internet connection at elementary and

secondary schools through the GIGA School Program

(Ministry of Education, 2020). The author believes

that improving the IT skills of teachers will be an

important issue to improve many aspects of

contemporary education in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by JSPS Kakenhi

#20K03232 and 20K03265, and a grant from the Saga

University President. The improved HyFlex class

proposed in this paper was inspired by the activities

at the Facebook group mentioned in Section 2.

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