“The TRUly Flexible initiative has been described as the introduction of a “continuum” of delivery options between asynchronous and classroom-based learning and was intended to provide students with more flexible learning options.” Castanet September 30, 2025

Thompson Rivers University (TRU) is encouraging faculty to offer courses in a TRUly Flexible format instead of just on campus. TRUly is a play on the  words “truly” and “TRU”. There may be a variety of TRUly Flexible options but for now it means that students will be provided with more blended learning options (i.e., courses that have both online and in person elements). Continue reading for a scenario, purpose and learning outcomes.

Scenario

Imagine an instructor is asking you, as a colleague or instructional support faculty, for evidence-based resources to help guide their decisions on how to effectively design and teach their on-campus course in a TRUly Flexible approach. They are overwhelmed with options that promise the next great learning breakthrough but want to know what really matters for learning to take place. This resource is designed to help provide some direction in how to address this scenario.

Purpose

This is a resource for you if you are looking for direction in how to make your campus course more flexible. This flexible classroom toolkit will introduce evidence-based approaches to improve learning. While examples may use the flipped classroom approach, these cognitive approaches to learning are relevant to any educational situation. Maybe you already use these approaches. Learning about the evidence-based research can help you feel more prepared when justifying your pedagogical decisions to yourself or others. Explaining the reason behind your approaches can help your students to understand how they learn as well.

Learning Outcomes

After reading this resource, you should be able to:

  • Describe three main cognitive processes by which students learn (Yan et al, 2024)
  • Explain how these cognitive processes can guide your decisions when designing a flexible flipped classroom approach.