You can prompt students to retrieve an important piece of information, explain a concept as applied in a different context, or consider how they might use a new skill in their practice. These activities take mental energy, and students are likely to just move along without doing them unless you grab their attention and make them interactive. But, how?

Brightspace accessible templates to the rescue! Two simple strategies for engaging your learners in active mental processing of the content in Brightspace include using the Click n Reveal Interactions and the Flip Card Interactions. You can find these under Select a Document Template when you choose Create a File.

If you would like help using one of these templates or any others, book a meeting with an instructional designer.

Sample Click n Reveal Interaction

Ask your students a knowledge check question, apply the reading content to a new context, or reflect on personal relevance. The learner sees your response when they click the Find out button.

Sample Flip Card Interaction

Provide your students with virtual flashcards by adding a term on one side of the card and a definition on the other. Students reveal the definition when they hover their mouse over the card.

The most striking finding is that HyFlex flexibility does not, as many instructors fear, lead to declining attendance or disengagement. On the contrary, students who needed flexibility tended to use it as a tool to stay current with coursework rather than to disengage entirely, suggesting that choice itself can function as a retention mechanism. More significant, however, is what the research reveals about the true driver of engagement: belonging. Students who felt a strong sense of connection and support remained highly engaged regardless of which modality they chose, while students who felt disconnected showed lower engagement even with maximum freedom. This points to a finding with broad implications: modality is largely secondary to the relational and emotional climate of the course. Instructor presence, defined as timely communication, responsiveness, and visible enthusiasm, consistently emerged as a critical factor in sustaining that climate across all attendance modes.

Key Takeaways for Faculty

• Belonging matters more than modality. Whether you teach in person, online, or in a blended format, students who feel seen and supported engage more deeply. Investing in the relational dimensions of your course, such as check-ins, responsive feedback, community-building activities, may have a greater impact on student success than any structural or technological choice.
• Flexibility can be a retention tool, not a risk. Giving students some agency over how or when they engage does not necessarily lead to avoidance. When students trust that the course structure supports them, flexibility tends to help them stay on track during difficult weeks rather than fall behind.
• Instructor presence is the throughline across all formats. The research consistently identifies faculty visibility, warmth, and timely responsiveness as central to student engagement in every modality studied. How present and approachable you appear to students may be the single most transferable lesson from HyFlex research for any course format.

Read the full article here:

Mahmud, M. M., Teh, J. K. L., & Azizan, S. N. (2026). Hyflex learning and student engagement in higher education: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Education, 11. 

I used a weekly exit ticket in my courses to develop regular connections with every single one of my learners in all of my course modalities. It included a quick less-than-5 minutes reflection on their cognitive, affective, behavioral, and contextual experiences that week. I set aside 30 minutes on Monday mornings to read and comment on each one and learned a lot from my learners about their experiences in my courses and how I could better support them. This regular communication helped to ensure that no student was left behind, and we got to see our conversation mapped out over the course of the semester.

I made a copy of  for each student and shared it with them privately. If I wanted to ensure they saw my response right away, I could mention them in a comment, so they got an email notification. Feel free to copy and adapt.  to see some of the types of responses that students shared that helped me understand their learning experience

If you have large enrollment classes, you might consider objective-type questions in a Google Form that allow you to see summaries in chart form.

Read about how faculty are using Boodlebox: .

Find more resources here: 

Watch a short demo showing how to create a course, an assignment, and view student chat conversations below.