Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges - BlendFlex and HyFlex Models to Increase Student Engagement and Retention

Oct 15, 2026

Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges focuses on two connected adult learning barriers: student engagement and student persistence, often described as retention or program completion. The issue examines how technology-supported Flex learning models, especially HyFlex and BlendFlex, address these problems through hardware, software, platforms, and mobile applications. It defines HyFlex and BlendFlex, explains how course participation options work, outlines HyFlex principles like learner choice, equivalency, reusability, and accessibility, and compares BlendFlex’s more limited flexibility. It also describes where BlendFlex is used.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Description of the Challenge

What Are HyFlex and BlendFlex?

How Does BlendFlex Differ from HyFlex?

Where Is BlendFlex Used?

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Summer 2021 | [http://doi.org/10.35847/DRosen.3.2.73](http://doi.org/10.35847/DRosen.3.2.73) | | | --- | --- | | | Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges | BlendFlex and HyFlex Models to Increase Student Engagement and Retention David J. Rosen, Newsome Associates The focus of each Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges column begins with a common challenge facing adult basic skills practitioners. Solutions offered for these challenges, at least in part through the use of technology, include hardware, such as desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, electronic tablets, VR goggles, robots, and electronic whiteboards; software applications such as websites, course management systems, learning management systems, and databases; and apps for mobile devices. Each article begins with a description of a challenge and examines one or more solutions that use technology. Description of the Challenge: In this issue, we offer a technology solution to two large and related challenges: student engagement and student persistence, which, from a program or school perspective, is often described as student retention in or completion of a program. The technology solution we are exploring for these two problems is Flex learning models, specifically HyFlex and BlendFlex. What Are HyFlex and BlendFlex? HyFlex and BlendFlex are new models of teaching and learning made possible by digital technology. They offer adult learners more control to make courses fit the demands of their lives, especially when they are complicated by pandemics or natural disasters, when in-person learning may be difficult or impossible, and when shifting from in-person to remote learning must be easy and seamless. Purdue Shares Look Inside HyFlex ClassroomCampus Technology To put Flex learning in perspective, here is a short summary of decades of change in instruction delivery in the United States and in many other countries. Before the digital revolution, there were only group or one-on-one, in-person learning, in a physical teaching/learning space, usually a classroom or a tutoring space; this is now often referred to as traditional in-person classroom teaching or tutoring. There was also paper- Correspondence: [djrosen@newsomeassociates.com](djrosen@newsomeassociates.com) 73 based distance education, usually referred to as correspondence courses. In the twentieth century, courses were also delivered at a distance through radio and television technology. With digital technology--including computers, portable digital devices such as smartphones, and the internet and its worldwide web--online distance education, often now referred to as remote teaching and learning, has grown enormously; it includes massive open online courses, known as MOOCs, but also many other online courses offered by secondary schools, post-secondary institutions and adult basic skills schools and programs. Remote teaching and learning are now provided synchronously (in scheduled “real” time) and/or asynchronously (available any time). We have seen hybrid modes, a combination of remote/ online and in-person teaching and learning and, more recently, some programs or schools have chosen an integrated kind of hybrid mode known as blended learning, where what one learns online and in-person addresses the same curriculum content standards, but with both in-person and online teaching and learning approaches. Now we have Flex learning, an especially convenient and adjustable kind of hybrid or blended learning. There are two kinds ofFlex learning, HyFlex and BlendFlex.“Hy” refers to “hybrid”, and “Blend” refers to “blended” learning. In a HyFlex course, students can attend face-toface or online synchronously or asynchrously. Brian Beatty, Associate Professor of Instructional Technologies in the Department of Equity, Leadership Studies and Instructional Technologies at San Francisco State University, when he was Associate Vic

FAQs

What two major challenges does the issue address for adult basic skills practitioners?

The issue targets student engagement and student persistence, which are often described as student retention in or completion of a program.

What are HyFlex and BlendFlex in the context of adult learning?

HyFlex and BlendFlex are Flex learning models made possible by digital technology, allowing adult learners more control to match course demands, especially when in-person learning is difficult or impossible.

How does BlendFlex differ from HyFlex?

BlendFlex is described as having less flexibility: instructors commonly pre-assign in-person attendance on certain days, while other days offer options such as remote participation, recorded sessions, or online modules.

Oct 15, 2026

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