Self-regulation, motivation, and outcomes in HyFlex classrooms

At a public, 4-year, open access university, students were given the choice of how they would attend class: face-to-face, online, or livestream (synchronous session in Microsoft Teams®). The 876 students in this study registered in course sections designated as face-to-face delivery yet were provided attendance flexibility due to the pandemic. This unique situation provided a research opportunity to explore the self-regulatory, motivational, and contextual factors that affected students’ attendance choices as well as their academic outcomes (pass/withdrawal) and perceptions of satisfaction. Results showed that 70% of students took advantage of the opportunity to flex and strongly valued the convenience, choice, and time savings. They were satisfied with connections to instructors. They were less satisfied with connections to peers, fluency between attendance modes, and technology performance. Generally, students performed well in the HyFlex courses with pass rates and withdrawal rates of 88% and 2%, respectively, for both Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 terms. The students who were most likely to flex were first year students who lived more than 15 miles from campus; first year students comprised a disproportionately large portion of those who failed. Self-regulatory and motivational factors were explored in relation to attendance decisions. Besides COVID-related issues and work/life balance, a sizable percentage (13%) of students explained their attendance decisions in terms of quality of their learning and in this way demonstrated self-regulation. Motivation was an issue for 17% of the students, typically expressed as not attending in the way they learned best or skipping class.