“This selfie was taken by the enthusiastic students in my HyFlex World Cultural Geography class during week 2 of the Fall 2023 semester. I deliberately engage the students by putting them into groups to do a presentation in the second week of class. The low-stakes group assignment begins their preparation for the final week of class when the students do an individual presentation on a topic of their choice. For this project, the students picked a topic of interest to them to answer a geographic question. Their question: ‘Where do Special Education Teachers Earn the Highest Salaries?’ While the students in this group all came to class to share their presentations, the session also featured groups that combined virtual and in-class students, as well as groups where all students were virtual.”

Dr. Crews wrote that this activity serves multiple purposes:

1. Students get to practice giving a presentation during week 1, so that by the final week, they are confident with the material and with presenting.
2. Students get to know one another, and this camaraderie contributes to the course completion rate.
3. Students become more comfortable with virtual classroom features such as sharing their screens and working in breakout groups.