Synchronous, Asynchronous, Hybrid, HyFlex – What Does It All Mean?

The UIC Office of the Registrar has the following terms and their descriptions:

SYNC: Synchronous. An online course in which students use video conferencing technologies (such as Blackboard Collaborate, Zoom, etc.) to join class at the meeting times that are listed on the UIC schedule of classes for that class. Blackboard may be used for students to participate in additional asynchronous or synchronous online learning activities.

ASYNC: Asynchronous. An online course where all of the coursework and assignments are completed online and there are no mandatory meeting times when students join class using video conferencing technology (such as Blackboard Collaborate, Zoom. etc.). Students use Blackboard to participate in required online learning activities each week. Coursework is completed on students’ own time while still meeting deadlines. The instructor may create optional synchronous online meeting times using video conferencing technology, where attendance is encouraged but not required. These optional meeting times must be scheduled at the times listed on the UIC schedule of classes that were previously set aside for that class, and must be recorded for students unable to attend.

ONCAM: On campus. A course that will meet live on campus at the meeting times that are listed on the UIC schedule of classes for that class. The instructor may structure the course to utilize both on campus and synchronous online modes such as live-streaming. All on campus courses will switch to a fully synchronous online mode if public health authorities or the university determine that on campus classes are no longer safe.

HYBRD:  Hybrid.  A course which mixes online (asynchronous and synchronous) and in-person, on campus instruction. A hybrid course with in-person instructional components will meet live on campus at the meeting times that are listed on the UIC schedule of classes for that class. All on campus class activities will switch to a fully synchronous online mode if public health authorities or the university determine that on campus classes are no longer safe.

OFCXP: Off campus experience.  A course which may use in-person instruction, online synchronous or asynchronous instruction, or a combination that is hosted off the UIC campus.  An example of this could be student teaching, internships, or health science college clinical experiences.

These terms are mainly used for registration purposes so it would not make sense for us to use these terms for delivery of content.

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence (CATE) has the following terms and their descriptions:

• Online synchronous: fully online course with live sessions at specified times
• Online asynchronous: fully online course with no mandatory live sessions
• On-campus blended synchronous: in-person students simultaneously meeting with synchronous online students via live streaming technology
• On-campus hybrid: mix of in-person instruction with online content delivered synchronously or asynchronously

UICOM is not actually using any of these terms as they are specifically stated here for the delivery of medical education content. We are using variations of what CATE uses, such as hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous. One term that I mentioned at the start and in the title is HyFlex. Note that this term is actually not referenced by the registrar or CATE, though the closest it comes to is ONCAM from the registrar and On-campus blended synchronous from CATE.

HyFlex refers to online synchronous hybrid delivery and is a blend of two terms: “hybrid” and “flexible.” It means that courses are delivered synchronously (at the same time) in-person (e.g., face-to-face) as well as online. Students are given the option to choose for themselves if they will attend in-person or online.

It really boils down to semantics. If for example, you require students to tell you in advance if they will be attending online or in-person, it’s technically not HyFlex according to established definitions. If you indicate in the schedule that, for example, groups 1-5 will attend in-person on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while groups 6-10 will attend online during those same days, that is also not HyFlex. Here is a brief explanation of HyFlex from one of my colleagues, Dr. Tutaleni Asino at OK State University: https://tutaleniasino.com/hyflex-brief/.

Columbia University also describes the difference between hybrid and HyFlex this way:

• Hybrid learning is when all students experience the same combination of online and in-person activities.
• HyFlex learning is when students can choose their preferred balance of learning between in-person and online.

The Activity Template (AT) that we use has a section at the top of the page that helps faculty to clearly indicate to coordinators if a session is purely online, face-to-face, or hybrid. Let’s keep it simple for everyone and just use terms we already decided to use–and this does not include the term HyFlex. If you want to read more about HyFlex course design, here is an open educational resource (OER) that goes into great depth: https://edtechbooks.org/hyflex.

And finally, as a reminder, we have a list of terms, some that are used in the curriculum and others that simply help with broader understanding that can be found here: https://comfaculty.uic.edu/getting-started/definitions-and-terms-used-in-the-uicom-curriculum/ – and a list of standardized terms and definitions for our curriculum specifically for delivery types: https://comfaculty.uic.edu/faculty-development/best-practices-for-design-and-delivery-of-content/delivery-of-instructional-content/.