Higher education is undergoing a quiet revolution; one where flexibility, accessibility, and continuity are no longer optional. As universities around the world embrace new ways of teaching and learning, HyFlex education is quickly becoming the new gold standard. One of the clearest examples? Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies (SPS), which has invested heavily in building a robust HyFlex infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of students and faculty alike.
At SpatialChat, we believe the future of education isn’t just hybrid, it’s HyFlex. And we’ve built a platform designed specifically to support that shift.
What Is HyFlex and Why Are Top Universities Like Columbia Adopting It?
HyFlex (Hybrid + Flexible) education allows students to choose how they want to attend each class, whether in person, live online, or asynchronously through a learning platform like Canvas.
At Columbia SPS, HyFlex is more than a contingency plan — it’s a proactive model that makes education more accessible, equitable, and resilient. Their classrooms are designed to accommodate simultaneous in-person and remote learners, with instructors trained in pedagogical best practices that work across all modalities. By offering this kind of flexibility, institutions empower students to participate based on their needs without sacrificing educational quality or classroom engagement.
The HyFlex Model Needs a Purpose-Built Platform
While Columbia SPS has built out sophisticated physical classrooms and workflows for HyFlex delivery, not every institution has the same resources. That’s where virtual solutions like SpatialChat can bridge the gap, by offering a scalable, immersive HyFlex learning environment without the need for expensive hardware setups.
Whether you’re running a virtual lecture, asynchronous self-study space, or online office hours, SpatialChat brings the HyFlex vision to life with:
Customizable Virtual Classrooms
Create interactive spaces that mimic real classrooms, complete with whiteboards, breakout areas, and pinboards for PDFs, videos, or notes.
Deep Tool Integrations
Easily embed tools your faculty and students already love, including Miro, Google Docs, YouTube, Kahoot, and Canvas LMS, directly into the learning environment.
Support for Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning
With recording and on-demand access, AI-generated content, and collaborative features like polls, Q&A, and file sharing, SpatialChat makes it easy to support students attending live or catching up later.
True Engagement, Wherever Students Are
Our spatial audio, breakout rooms, and multi-screen sharing features make it easy to foster community and interaction, no matter how students choose to attend.
From Virtual Classrooms to Poster Sessions: HyFlex at Scale
SpatialChat supports a wide range of educational use cases beyond the classroom, all of which fit beautifully into the HyFlex model:
- Virtual Office Hours and Online Tutoring Centers for individualized student support
- Research Presentations, Thesis Defenses, and Poster Sessions
- Virtual Open Houses, Admissions Offices, and Registrar Rooms
- Orientation Programs, Career Fairs, and Alumni Events
- Self-Study Rooms and Faculty Training Spaces
Whether your goal is academic support, engagement, or accessibility, SpatialChat provides the flexible infrastructure to support it.
Why Now, and Why SpatialChat?
The Columbia SPS HyFlex initiative makes one thing clear: this is not a short-term trend. The future of higher education lies in offering students choice and access without compromising academic integrity or classroom connection.
At SpatialChat, we’ve been building for this future from day one. Our platform isn't a retrofitted video tool, it's a virtual campus experience, ready to scale with your institution’s HyFlex goals. Flexible. Immersive. Built for real learning.
Let’s make HyFlex simple, scalable, and student-friendly. Book a demo to know more about how SpatialChat supports HyFlex learning, or try it for yourself with our interactive demo.