Evaluation of the HyFlex, Hybrid, and Asynchronous Online Teaching Modalities on Student Learning in Graduate Microbiology Coursework

Abstract

The COVID‐19 Pandemic has impacted educational offerings and student learning at all instructional levels. In the USA, the uneven distribution of COVID‐19 cases and their sudden appearance has created a need for flexibility in available instructional modalities to account for students and/or faculty that may need to be quarantined or isolated due to COVID‐19 exposure or infection. This study sought to compare the implementation of the HyFlex (in‐person, asynchronously online, or synchronously online at the student’s discretion), Hybrid (asynchronously delivered, pre‐recorded lectures coupled with fixed, in‐person meetings), and fully asynchronously delivered microbiology coursework for graduate students. Comparison of individual exam scores and overall exam averages revealed that students instructed in the HyFlex and Hybrid modalities consistently scored similarly to, or exceeded in a statistically significant manner, the average exam scores earned by students in a traditional, in‐person lecture format. Comparisons of the individual exam or overall average exam grades observed in students instructed in HyFlex, Hybrid, and asynchronous online learning modalities revealed no statistically significant difference in student performance when the modalities were compared to one another. Successful instruction in the areas of molecular biology and biochemistry, namely cellular structure and physiology, microbial virulence mechanisms, molecular and cellular mechanisms of immune defense, microbial growth and metabolism, and the principles of mutation and recombination, was evaluated by measuring student performance on a pre‐selected set of identical examination items. Analysis of these Student Learning Outcomes data revealed largely similar levels of achievement independent of instructional modality. Collectively, these data demonstrate that graduate‐level microbiology instruction can be successfully implemented across a multitude of learning modalities each offered partly or entirely online. These findings are anticipated to be of value to faculty and administrators of institutions higher education concerned with continuity of instruction in general, and COVID‐19 contingency planning in particular.