The Platformized Classroom: Communicative Identity Labor, Staged Presence, and Platform Capitalism in HyFlex Learning

Abstract

The proliferation of HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible) modalities in higher education has transformed educational communication into a site of complex identity performance, algorithmic mediation, and platform-driven governance. This paper argues that HyFlex environments constitute a “platformized classroom”—a communicative space in which instructors and students are compelled to perform, commodify, and continuously calibrate their pedagogical identities across simultaneous in-person, synchronous, and asynchronous channels. To analyze these dynamics, the paper introduces the fetishized learning economy (FLE) framework, adapted from critical political economy and platform studies, centering three interrelated concepts: pedagogical persona capital (the strategic construction and performance of teaching and learning identities across modalities), staged presence (the dramatization of engagement and participation as symbolic markers within HyFlex environments), and educational platform capitalism (the institutional and commercial shaping of pedagogical communication through learning management systems, videoconferencing platforms, and datafication). Through a theoretical analysis of communication dynamics in HyFlex settings, this paper argues that educational identity under the FLE is engineered rather than expressed, shaped by institutional-platform synergies that reward particular performances of presence, engagement, and learning. By doing so, this study critiques assumptions embedded in dominant HyFlex discourse—particularly the myth of modality-neutral equity—and, through dialogue with participatory communication and Universal Design for Learning framework, offers a path toward more equitable and human-centered HyFlex pedagogy. This paper positions HyFlex not as a neutral modality of access, but as a platformized communicative economy that reshapes the conditions of teaching and learning.