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SPEAKER 1: OTAN--

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A logo of a human silhouette, one arm lifted. Text appears.

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Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

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A graphic displaying OTAN's services-- face-to-face online training, news articles, teaching with technology, annual technology and distance learning symposium, teachers' and administrators' digests, online resources for adult education. OTAN dot U.S.. 916 228 2580.

Slide, OTAN Online. Technology and Distance Learning Symposium. Piloting a Hyflex Classroom. Presenters, Bijal Varia, Santa Clara Adult Education. Patricia Pottorff Croghan, Santa Clara Adult Education. March 3, 2022.

A sildeshow. First slide. Piloting a HiFlex Classroom. A Candid Perspective from an E.S.L. Supervisor and an E.S.L. Teacher. Patricia Pottorff Croghan, E.S.L. Supervisor. Bijal Varia, E.S.L. Teacher. A video of speaker appears in the top corner.

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PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: OK, so welcome. We're so happy to have you here today on this beautiful Thursday morning, and I hope you enjoy our piloting a HyFlex classroom presentation. My name is Patricia Pottorff of Croghan. I have

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Next slide. Santa Clara Adult Education Digital Leadership Academy Team Members, with photos of the two presenters.

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been an ESL supervisor at Santa Clara Adult Education for the past three years. But I've been in education for around 22 years.

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A second video replaces the first.

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BIJAL VARIA: Good morning, everyone. I am Bijal Varia, and I am an advanced ESL teacher at the Santa Clara Adult Education. And as of now, I celebrate 20 years in the field of education, out of which 2 and 1/2 years at Santa Clara, teaching ESL program.

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Next slide. Santa Clara Adult Education Team Members. A list of names and organizations under the headings Administrative Team, E.S.L. Team, and Support Team.

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PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: Before we get started, we would like to give a special thanks to all of our team members. It takes a dedicated, empowered, and a collaborative team for all goals to materialize.

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Next slide. D.L.A.C. Team Support. A list of names and organizations under the headings OTAN Members and Collaboration Team Members.

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BIJAL VARIA: And a huge shout out goes out to the DLAC team members and the leaders for supporting us and guiding us to our journey, all the way through to piloting the HyFlex program at our school, and with the digital leadership. So thank you guys.

And not to forget, our partner school members, Campbell Community Adult Center and Pittsburgh Adult Center. Thank you guys. Without you, this wouldn't have been possible.

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Next slide. Santa Clara Adult Education, where learning and community meet. A photo of a one-story building, "Wilson Educational Options, Santa Clara Unified Adult Education."

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PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: So first, we're going to think about, why did Santa Clara Adult Education apply to the Digital Leadership Academy? As a supervisor at our school, I saw a disconnect from the real world for our students by lack of access and utilization of technology. Many realize that life experiences, as you all know, utilize and are driven by technology, such as applying for a job or helping their children with homework.

I could see the inequities and disadvantage this caused our student population while integrating into our society. To me, it was such a paradox that our schools located in the heart of Silicon Valley and our students were not having the technical resources, skills, and knowledge that this area has to offer.

Santa Clara Adult Education staff and students need help in making a successful transition into the technological age in education, hence OTAN's Digital Leadership Academy. Bijal and I were so fortunate to be accepted into this academy during this year, these two years.

Little did anyone know the real significance of the program and the team support through these two years. The pandemic hit. We only realized at this moment that these groups in this cohort of the Digital Leadership Academy would be the cutting edge of the change in the education in the technology world.

For Santa Clara Adult Education, the pandemic meant going 100% synchronously online during the shutdown. When we just started to feel like we were getting into the groove of things with online instruction, the next hurdle became how to transition back into the classroom, while still meeting student needs.

In order to address this inequity and allow Santa Clara Adult Education's student population to achieve 21st century goals, we strived for three main goals at our agency for our pilot. One, access to technology. Two, utilization of technology in the classroom and the real world. Three, professional development surrounding our staff. What were the main purpose of these schools? Students' successful integration into the global workforce, higher education, and the community.

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Next slide, 2021, 2022 Mottos. Simplify and Solidify. Slow and Steady.

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Once we began to explore all of the resources and expertise in the tech world, we really became increasingly overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge, technology, that we are now exposed to, and how do we sift through that. Bijal and I decided that we needed stability for us in our program.

We decided to make our goal sustainable for teachers and students. And by doing this, we chose to mottos as a guide in our decision making. And they became more and more important throughout the pandemic. Simplify and solidify. Slow and steady.

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Next slide, Factors in Determining a Pilot, with a bulleted list of seven items.

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Factors in determining a pilot-- there were many factors-- student needs, by a survey, equity and access to hardware and the internet, students' time, place, space, and pace, teacher knowledge of best practices in online education, curriculum compatibility with online learning, and stress factors for the teacher and students, as the pandemic was very stressful, and always, budget.

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Next slide, Duration. The school year of 2021, 2022 or as long as feasible, considering student needs and effectiveness of the program.

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Bijal and I contemplated all of these and had many discussions regarding the issue of online learning, continuing forward and transitioning back to campus. For this transitioning back to campus, whatever that meant-- online, face to face, or blended learning-- we had to keep in our forefront what our purpose was, what the student needs are, and what would be the most effective program to accomplish the most in the shortest period of time.

Therefore, we had many decisions in looking at a project for DLAC. Here are some of the main factors we looked at and decided upon. The duration-- we thought we would do a pilot in the school year of '21-'22, starting in August, and continue it as long as feasible, considering student needs and the effectiveness of the program.

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Next slide. Budget, with a graphic of a wad of money. Text, Zero budget expenditure.

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As all programs, Santa Clara Adult Education is always monitoring budget. We wanted to pilot a program, pilot a blended learning class for data purposes, for a decision to continue this pilot. It would depend on student need, student learning, and sustainability. We wanted a low cost or a free trial period and utilize only what we had on hand.

And to be able to use the data to confirm that this is in the best interest of the student, teacher, and school, we allowed flexibility to ourselves. We utilized what we already had on hand, and Bijal got extremely creative with what she had on hand in her classroom.

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Next slide, The Pilot Class, with a bulleted list of seven items.

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The pilot class consisted of intermediate and high-- intermediate, high, and advanced students, 24 students, 9:00 AM to 11.30 AM, four days a week, Monday through Thursday for 17 weeks, was the first semester, to be continued in the second semester if we felt feasible, August through December. A HyFlex model for blended learning was used. Students must attend a minimum of two days in the classroom, face to face, and then the other two days online.

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Next slide, Equipment Used. A list of items, with photos of the items below.

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The equipment used-- Bijal figured out how to do a blended learning program with what was available in her room. What was available in her room was a teacher PC, laptop, camera, headphones, projector, and a projector screen.

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Next slide, Teacher and Student Support. A numbered list of two paragraphs.

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Teacher support and training-- Bijal had great support and training through the Digital Leadership Academy. I don't know how her and I could have worked together without this academy, in this type of environment. So many stressful changes and switches. And students then received instruction from Bijal on how to navigate the course simultaneously online and face to face.

Questions that we contemplated/ Number one-- was this feasible and sustainable to train all teachers to have a blended learning environment? What would be the cost, and how would it be sustainable? What about the stress levels, with every other stress-- all the other stress happening in the world, to our students and to our teachers? How would this pan out?

Well, we were able to figure out all these answers to these questions. So let's now take a look at the pilot classroom in implementing blended learning.

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Next slide, Implementation of a Blended Learning. How and Why? A word map appears.

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BIJAL VARIA: So implementation of a blended learning program--

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A window appears with a smaller image of the same slide, a timer, the previous and next slides even smaller, and the exact words Bijal is reading.

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blended learning, also known as hybrid learning, is an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online, with traditional place based classroom methods.

The pandemic played an important role in implementing the online learning and eventually transitioning to the blended learning in-person once we were back in person.

As we are the ESL program, our major goals are teaching workforce based ESL topics in the classroom. Having said so, blended learning ties into the workforce area, as having tech skills is extremely important nowadays. All of our students showed a great deal of interest in learning and establishing these skills.

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The window disappears.

Next slide, How Did We Design the Blended Learning? A numbered list of seven items.

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How did we design the blended learning program? Well, we went through multiple factors in designing the blended learning classroom. We first discovered if the Ventures curriculum was compatible with the HyFlex class.

Secondly, we designed the pacing of the syllabus for the blended learning course, determined students' level of interactivity based on their choice of days and flexibility, integrate group collaboration activities, facilitate communication online and face to face communication, compile a list of resources to support learning. and then finally, we also created an assessment plan.

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Next slide, Ventures Curriculum Plan, with text and a clickable link to the plan.

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So Ventures curriculum plan designed the pacing for the blended learning course. Well, we tied these two factors in. And then we came up with--

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The link is clicked. A Google doc appears with a two-column chart. On the left, the months are listed starting with August. On the right, a list of learning units.

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I'm sure you guys can see this document. Just thumbs up, or something would be grayed, since I'm staring the screen.

SPEAKER 4: Yes, Bijal. You can see that.

BIJAL VARIA: Wonderful. So we developed a Santa Clara adult education yearly planning document. This we call it as our long term planning document. So based on the yearly, the monthly planning, we broke it down into our units, the elements that we were going to use, and incorporating EL civics program as well. So that was the first step in implementation.

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Next slide. Determine the level of interactivity. A photo of a chat thread beside a paused video of a class in session.

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Moving forward, determine the level of interactivity. Since some of our students chose to work from home and study from home, we kind of came up with a plan where-- how to make the optimum utilization of the technology, which is very usable and applicable in the day to day life, bearing in mind that not all the students have an access to a laptop from home.

So we came up with the application of WhatsApp, which is very commonly used by all of our students. So we started a Whatsapp group on our phones. And from there on, we took it forward to Zoom, tying it in with our LMS, and then the in-person classroom.

So this was our classroom look. We have students sitting in-person, presenting. And then we have a student online, joining from Zoom.

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Next slide, Integrate Group Collaboration Activities. Two photos, each with four images of students at work, some in class, some at home.

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Integrated group collaboration activity-- this was the hardest one of all. Because we also wanted to provide equity to all of our students. So what was the best possible way? So, we also have projector screens in our classroom.

So the best way to do was, I had two cameras set up in the classroom. One was a webcam set up on the PC, classroom PC. And the other one was my laptop camera that I could easily move around. Our classroom also has 30 laptops that are very accessible by the students for their day to day activities, so which mean each and every student present in the classroom had a laptop with their cameras turned on.

All the students in the classroom would turn on-- would log in to Zoom, and the students working from home would also log in to Zoom. Now, why was this needed, when I had students working online, or working in the class, in person?

Well, one of the main things was to promote group collaboration, no matter where you're studying from. So even if the students were studying from home, they would equally have the opportunity to participate in ongoing classroom activities if the classroom students also logged on to Zoom, and then working in group based activity with the online students.

I would then project the whole session on the projector screen, so that the students in classroom can also see the students joining in on Zoom on the big screen. This way, we could ease off the communication really easily.

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Next slide, Examples from HiFlex Classroom. A paused video above two clickable links.

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Now, I have an example from a live classroom that I'd like to share with you all.

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The video begins.

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It's a video recording of my HyFlex classroom.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

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The video is four different camera feeds from four locations, three inside the classroom.

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[CLASSROOM DISCUSSION]

BIJAL VARIA: And the student is studying on Zoom. These students are doing a group activity in the classroom. And like you can see, this student here is participating with this group, as he is in close connection with what's going on in the classroom.

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The mouse moves the scrub bar forward.

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[CLASSROOM DISCUSSION]

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The video pauses.

The mouse moves the scrub bar backward.

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- [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

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The mouse moves the scrub bar forward.

The mouse moves the scrub bar backward.

The mouse moves the scrub bar forward. Now there are only three videos. In the upper left, Bijal addresses a class. In the upper right, a view of the students in class, masked. At the bottom, the student at home, unmasked.

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[END PLAYBACK]

BIJAL VARIA: What is the only difference?

STUDENT: [Inaudible]

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The mouse moves the scrub bar forward. Now, two students in the upper left attempt to tape a poster to the white board.

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BIJAL VARIA: Why don't you stick out-- you know what?

But just a little tape to secure things, a very simple example of a classroom,

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The videos disappear. The slideshow resumes.

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utilizing the HyFlex model. Moving forward--

SPEAKER 4: Bijal, just real quick, there is a question about some students holding their cell phones, wondering what they're doing with their cell phones.

BIJAL VARIA: Oh, so we also have Whatsapp going on. Margarita would sometimes post things on WhatsApp too for them to write down on the poster board here. So some students would also tweet. Actually, the way we design the sites like this, that our students could use their phones to communicate, and to share, and to make the best possible use of the technology which is available readily.

Did that answer your question? OK. Moving forward--

SPEAKER 4: There's one more. Sorry.

BIJAL VARIA: Go ahead.

SPEAKER 4: Took me a second to unmute myself. OK. So did you have help switching between the camera?

BIJAL VARIA: So the way this model worked is, it's pretty easy. I did not need to switch between their cameras at all. Imagine a camera on my PC, facing towards me. So that's this part here.

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The top left.

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See, all the students can see me.

The other camera was facing towards the class, which is my laptop. Now, laptop being laptop, we can move laptop around the classroom. So my students would help me if I needed the laptop to move to different places in the classroom. If my student was working with just one group, that one group would hold the laptop close to them. And then that's how they would collaborate.

So ideally speaking, I did not have-- I did not feel the need of switching between the cameras at all. Again, the projector screen played a huge role, because everybody could see the projector screen from the classroom. Sometimes, if I'm talking to the students-- I'm teaching something-- I may not always be looking at the camera. That's when, if my students working from home had a question, and she would just raise a hand, my students from the classroom would just draw my attention and say, teacher, I think she needs some help.

And so it was very collaborative. We all were in this together, helping each other.

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Next slide, Facilitate Communication. Four methods are listed, Whatsapp and email, In person, Zoom, L.M.S.. Each method has bullet points.

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So, coming to that point, facilitate communication, right? So how did we facilitate communication? Again, WhatsApp and email. We-- sometimes I would send the task via WhatsApp, if it is a video recording task. I always encouraged my students to do some video recording, for which the phones were very useful. Some of the tasks I would send sometimes via email. Depends on what the task was.

For in-person students, they would follow the instructions and collaborate with students in person and online on Zoom, just like how we saw. Zoom, onliners, like I call them, work synchronously with the students in person and collaborate with Zoomers in the breakout room.

So for students, if I had more than one student, then-- one or two students-- then I would also have breakout rooms where they could do their activity in a small group and the breakout room together.

And then finally, we also had LMS in place. We started off with Google Classroom, which was a huge success. And then moving on to Canvas, we transitioned to Canvas, as that's the need of the hour. And I guess my students really took on board with that, too. So that transition from Google Classroom to Canvas really helped.

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Next Slide, What is HiFlex? A text definition.

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So what is HyFlex/ HyFlex is a blended learning model, course format, that combines a face to face classroom and an online classroom simultaneously. So we just saw how.

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Text, Technology Scaffolding for Levels, with a clickable ling.

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Now, technology scaffolding for levels-- be come up with what is needed for which level, since we have so many levels? We have five levels in our ESL program. So this is how we actually--

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A Google sheet appears with several labeled columns-- level, skill, L.M.S., website, apps. Each column text in the rows below.

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we designed this scaffolding tech skills speed where we have all the levels right from-- [Inaudible] right from literacy to advanced level.

So this is how we broke it. Down so students, beginning at zero level or level one, it was important that they knew basic skills of using Zoom, email, just the keyboard, computer, just the basic skills. Websites that we use for all this level was Cambridge Ventures, Presentation Plus, and then learning resource websites, YouTube.

Moving on to Beginning Low, they would slightly learn more. Because now, they would be using a lot more technology in their classrooms. So then, we would introduce them to hyperlinks, chats in the Zoom, moving forward to all the other, using-- making PowerPoint presentations, replying to an email, annotation tool on Zoom.

So as they move to the advanced class, my students were now able to create a video. They were able to use a class blog, logging on to Zoom, email, joining Google Classroom with a code, navigating Google Classroom, submitting their homework in form of Google documents. So are a great deal of-- we used Google Suites a lot, too, all the time, to make PowerPoint presentations.

And then we also made a list of websites that were useful for our students and our fellow teachers. Because we believe in sharing best practices. If something worked for the advanced, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work for the basic levels if we watered it down a little. So that's that.

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Next slide. Create an Assessment Plan. A picture of a Canvas page with a list of items. Each item has either a green check mark or a gray cross-out symbol. Under the picture is a clickable link.

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Finally, we created an assessment plan. So this was the assessment that I would do, unit by unit. So this is my Canvas page. And on this page, I would upload all the units. And then, at the same time, I would upload their quizzes.

Sometimes, the students would take the quiz in person. If the student did not come to class in person, they have the same access to the Canvas from home. So they would synchronously, on Zoom, that for the quiz. If my students could not do either, then they had the option of sitting for the quiz asynchronously, which is sitting for the quiz in their own personal time.

SPEAKER 4: Bijal, there was a question about what was the ratio of online to face to face. So how many online did you have?

BIJAL VARIA: So, like I said, like we mentioned earlier, it was solely based on students' choice. Now, here's how the choice factor worked. We did not give students a choice, saying, out of four days a week, you can come any two days a week in person, any two days stay at home. No, so this was very structured.

We asked the students to give us a preference. What were the days that you would want to work from home, and the other days you need it to come to school in person? Because that was the deal breaker. You have to come to school in person for 50% of your time.

The other 50%, you choose the days and stick to those days. Because looking at the pandemic, we have to be very careful at the student participation in-person, as there was limitations going on at that time. So if my students chose Monday and Tuesday in person, and they wanted to work for Wednesday and Thursday from home, then they stick to that plan for the whole semester, unless they wanted to come all in-person.

The only choice was that either you come in person 100%, or you come in person 50% of the time. But it was never the other way around. Again, this was just for the ESL program. I also teach a Speak Up program, which is Speak Up class, which I teach only on Friday.

For that class, I have given my students a choice that it's up to you. If you guys want to do 100% from home, you can do that. So I have two students who stick from working from home. So, but answering to your question, the ratio was usually, I would say five or six students working from home, and the others in the class.

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Next slide. Successes and Challenges. Two large boxes appear, labeled Success and Challenges, each with multi-colored boxes attached, identifying specifics.

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Now, successes and challenges-- what were the successes of this? First success? I found it extremely creative to design this program with the resources that were available at hand. So I didn't have to go to the school and say, hey, I want to teach this. Can we by Owl? No, we made our own Owl.

We had our laptop. We had a webcam. We had me. And then I had my students and the projector screen. This semester, I have been lucky enough to get the interactive whiteboard, and now I'm very excited to use that as well.

One of the major successes was, we were able to hit all the learning modalities and cater to different learning styles of our students. So I have students in my class who are tech geeks. They're technologically so advanced. They don't have as much language. But by incorporating HyFlex, these students' confidence just boost up.

And they were so much into helping other students around in the classroom. And the language just happened for them. It would flow out of their mouths.

Student retention-- we didn't have to go through the hurdles of convincing the students to come in person while you cannot come in person. And pandemic had a great role to play in, too, because it was a serious situation. And I guess, as a school, we can definitely do this much for our students.

You don't want to come to school in person? No problem. The school will come to you, right? Flexibility for both students and teachers.

There was a time where I also had a choice of doing some meetings from home, because I was unwell. And I think this really worked out well for everyone.

There was a high student engagement, because learning tech skills is a very important thing in this time and age. And everybody wants to learn it. Having said so, work based learning makes a great impact, when the students can actually write their resume. They can go on Indeed, find a job, seek out my help for their interview skills, send me videos, practicing their language by recording themselves again and again. So that was a very high student engagement there, helping each other learn different skills, sharing documents, and then using these skills in their real life, even with their children.

Teacher training was another great hit. We-- once I kind of established this. I shared this with my other fellow teachers, of course. This is not easy. You really have to get the hang of it. Because you're teaching as well, right? You're not just going to sit down and fidget with the cameras all the time.

But if you make the placement of the cameras easy and accessible, than this is by far the most reliable and the most possible solution. And I think it's very trendy. This kind of teaching is very trendy. I really enjoyed teaching this.

I'll ask Patricia to go over the challenges now. Over to you, Patricia.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: Oh, great. Yes, there was numerous challenges, not only in the classroom, but also in the world in general. And we always had difficulties with student attendance and protocol for the COVID. But generally, we had to work with-- the challenges were always the equipment and the internet connection for the students.

Also, learning how to use the equipment for the students and the apps, and learning how to do it as second nature. And they are so used to being in face to face at first, then all online. Now they're learning a hybrid, a HyFlex class. So it was learning another learning environment.

With the teachers, professional development, of course, was the crunch. But most of this, the challenges for the teachers were about time, and also, I believe, their stress levels. And so we really worked at trying to reduce the stress levels on both student and teacher.

The teachers had to learn how to use the equipment, the applications, the online curriculum, and then teach it to the students. They had to learn best practices of teaching online and face to face, and simultaneously. They had to learn how to juggle all online and face to face activities and all interactions, all at once.

They had to teach the students how to navigate the physical classroom, as well as the online classroom and equipment. For the teachers, workload and prep time increased dramatically. Our point was, try to reduce some of these stresses in the teachers and students, and help socially and emotionally to returning to somewhat of a pre-pandemic state, although our belief is that it'll never be a pre-pandemic state, due to the knowledge of technology now.

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Next slide, Conclusions, with a bulleted list of five questions. Beneath the questions is a photo of an open laptop.

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SPEAKER 4: Patricia, there are several questions coming into the chat here. So I just wanted to--

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: OK, let me look.

SPEAKER 4: So David Rosen had a question. Can you tell us how much retention improved, and of course, completion improved? Ryan had a similar question. Do you know of students in the HyFlex model had better learning outcomes than students in in-person classes? So there were questions about retention.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: So the retention of students. To me, everybody that could be there. We're still in a pandemic. So how would this model serve outside of a pandemic? I think you would have a lot more retention.

We had a very fluid, in all of the classes, in and out. And COVID protocols being had, if somebody was sick, they had to stay home. But with that being said, they could join if they were well enough, or at least listen to the class if they chose.

So retention? I'm not sure I can give you a straight answer. Because right now, I don't feel like we're in the real stable world of adult education. Retention, Bijal? What do you think?

BIJAL VARIA: I personally-- my take on retention is that I'd like to give you the example of my Speak Up class. Of course, it's a paid class. But having this option of working from home was very intriguing for my students. They were like, oh! We don't have to come to school? OK, I think juggle with my child's school timing, and I can join in five minutes later, but via Zoom.

So I think it's really helped my students to have this flexibility of using Zoom. Now, am I a stickler that you did not choose this day, so I'm not going to allow? Well, no. I would definitely bend down a little, if my students had a genuine reason, and they were consistent in joining the classes as per their contract.

So I think this HyFlex model definitely worked for us. We did HyFlex from August until December. And there's a reason why we did it only for that time, since we were just piloting. We wanted to troubleshoot every single thing before we made it accessible to all the ESL programs.

But I think it's a good model. It definitely is a good model.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: Maybe what we could do, because I think that this last slide may answer a lot of the questions in the chat of the conclusions, and then we can take some more questions, if that would be OK with everybody.

SPEAKER 4: Yeah, there are several coming in. So yeah, go ahead and do that, and then we'll go through the--

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: Sure.

SPEAKER 4: And people can unmute and ask. Go ahead.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: So our conclusions-- did the HyFlex blended model, learning model, meet student needs? Definitely, yes. According to a survey that I had sent out in the summer of 2021, many students wanted a blended learning model. And it was a perfect fit.

We also had, at that time, we had acquired laptops. 100% had Wi-Fi in their homes. So they were very good about having that. Bijal?

BIJAL VARIA: Yes, exactly. And making it accessible via phone was a big, big thing, because everybody had a phone. And they could just come in contact with the students, with the teachers. We also had apps downloaded on phone-- for example, Canvas. It was downloaded on their phone. So they could actually see what has been uploaded on the Canvas via phone.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: And then, the second question-- did student learning take place? Yes, it did. I checked the learner gains summary report in TE for this class. Of the 21 paired accurate scores on CASAS tests in reading and listening, all 21 students made gains in both the reading skills and listening skills.

Now, this is not unusual for our advanced class, because we have a super teacher as well. Bijal, that's you.

BIJAL VARIA: Thank you. Having said so, I think opening the world to internet, and websites, and other online resources, it has really escalated learning to a different level, to be really honest with you. Because students, in their own time, are able to listen to different podcasts.

So I'm a big on Ted Talks, podcasts. So on my WhatsApp group, I also post Ted Talks, podcasts to different topics going on. I also would take a little snapshots of little grammar snippets, and then put them on our WhatsApp group.

So whenever my students have a couple of minutes, they would say, OK. When can I use could, and when can I use would? Or how are verbs? What are verbs, and how can I use verbs in different sentences? And just little snippets of grammar.

So I think, yeah, definitely, having an access in class to online resources has really escalated learning to a different level. And that has played a key role in getting the gains. Because students are learning a lot more using their different learning modalities.

This is a good model. Trust me.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: Was this type of classroom sustainable? Yes and no. Yes, but it would have to take several modifications to make it less strenuous and work friendly for the teacher and the students, and some equipment modification to make it easier, budget to support this model, and teacher professional development and planning into the budget for that.

BIJAL VARIA: So, I would also like to chime in here. Is this type of classroom sustainable? I think it is, because we have not invested in a lot of fancy products. It's just something which is very handy, and it is available in every classroom, almost, nowadays.

Having said so, I would also say that the students also found it very interesting. Because they would then suggest the same thing to their child's school teacher, and then so this kind of passed down to different areas of teaching and learning, too.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: And the one thing that Bijal didn't mention is that all of this required technical expertise. So the professional development of all teachers would have to be increased and be specific to what they are using, and also specific apps and tools taught to them, and give them a limit, so they don't get overwhelmed, of what they can use.

Bijal, was a HyFlex classroom user friendly for the teacher and student?

BIJAL VARIA: I would say yes and no. So yes and no is the answer for the teacher. Sometimes, I used to get tired. Sometimes, I used to be like, just turn off everything. I just want to teach.

And there were times when I used to get really excited. Because my students joining on Zoom would come up with the best possible ideas. And I'm like, OK. Great. This works. You know what? This is my why for having the HyFlex classroom.

So yes and no. It can be time consuming, because it takes a lot of time to find resources. Because now, you're not just catering to students in person. You're also catering to students online. So a teacher's expertise at using Zoom is very important. Because Zoom itself has a lot of resources that we could use.

Like for example, whiteboards-- so when I do the HyFlex, you know how we divide the learning intention on the whiteboard in the / I used to also write it on the whiteboard on Zoom, and then present it on my projector screen. So that used to be my whiteboard for my Zoom students and the students in person.

So I would say it is time consuming. But I guess once I got the hang of it and slowly, I started working with it more, I transition to becoming almost a pro at HyFlex, if I may say.

For students, at the very beginning, some of my students were a little hesitant. And I will call this hesitant, because they know their skills. Nowadays, with phones, everyone knows, almost, how to access everything on the phone.

However, using Google Suites, sometimes on the phone, could be a bit challenging, for which we had laptops in the classroom. For the students joining from home, I kind of requested them that if they had an iPad, that's what has been more helpful than a phone. But if they didn't, no problem. We'll make things work.

Now, one of the questions that I was asked earlier on was what were the students doing with the phone in the classroom? Let me tell you. For those students who did not have iPads or laptops, and they were joining in on from their phones, they would take snapshots of their work and then post it on my Google Classroom, or Canvas, or even the WhatsApp group. So the phones were also being used for taking snapshots, for recording, for taking pictures of their work, and submitting their homework as well.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: And so we want to also look at, will Santa Clara Adult Education continue this model? For now, we have discontinued our pilot as of December. And what was the reasoning behind our decision? Our students. Are students wanted to be all face to face in the classroom.

The blended model didn't meet the needs of those students at that time, and we wanted to release the extra workload and prep on the teacher. We wanted to reduce stress and change during an already stressful time.

With that being said, it was the students, whether they're being socially starved because not in pandemic, and they needed that collaboration or face to face only, the future will let us know.

BIJAL VARIA: Having said so, we have discontinued using the HyFlex program for the ESL program. But we have continued using it for the Speak Up class. So for our Speak Up class, we still are continuing to use the HyFlex program, where the students are joining in from home.

PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: [Inaudible] onto the next slide real quick, and so we have some time to answer those questions.

SPEAKER 4: OK.

(DESCRIPTION)
Next slide. The future with Blended Learning. Three numbered sentences.

(SPEECH)
PATRICIA POTTORFF CROGHAN: On the future of blended learning, online learning, as well as blended learning, will be driven by student needs. Right now, our students want face to face.

Here's a question I'm going to pose to you, though. Have our students been socially deprived of social interaction? And is that why they're coming in droves? And at some time into the future, will this model be more than wanted?

Also, this is the ESL program. I know that in other areas, such as HSD and HSE, it has been more successful. And student wants are not as-- they want more online.

Two, Bijal knows, and I know, and Santa Clara Adult Education knows how to develop and implement a successful program. Would we be hesitant when and if the need arises? Sure. We'd go back in a heartbeat.

We would need modifications to the pilot to make it easier for stress on the students in the socio-emotional health of the students and the teacher, and maybe being out of the pandemic.

Will we continue to monitor the ESL students and staff in the future? Of course. We're going to continue, because we aren't out of this pandemic yet, and things will still change. What we do know is that we will never go back to what we had before.

We don't know what the future holds. However, we feel extremely privileged to be part of this fantastic transformation of education. In this time and day, we are in the process of transitioning to the world technology world in the field of education. Santa Clara Adult Education is ready for whatever the students may need to integrate into our society successfully.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, OTAN Online. Technology and Distance Learning Symposium. Piloting a Hyflex Classroom. Presenters, Bijal Varia, Santa Clara Adult Education. Patricia Pottorff Croghan, Santa Clara Adult Education. March 3, 2022.

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