If whats happening in Georgia starts happening to all other Open For Business states, Ohio wont have much of a decision to make come end of June
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These plans for “hybrid” university classes make no sense, and I’m sure that will become clear as we approach the Fall semester. There is no way profs are going to design and manage what essentially amounts to two separate classes for each class – an in-person version AND an online version. The online version will be necessary (many schools won’t have space for students on campus with dorms only allowed at 50% capacity, if at all) so it seems likely that every class that can be online will be online only. Maybe studio art, chem labs, and dance classes will be in person, but I really cannot imagine anything that can be online choosing not be be totally online. It’ll be a shit student experience, but 
My wife already does this for her Research Methods class. They have to offer an online version for online-only students, but the in-class version usually does research projects with the local United Way that aren’t replicable online, so they are basically two different versions entirely. I have no idea how common it is, though.
Fall is still up in the air here, but I think her department at least is planning to do online-only rather than any weird hybrid thing, assuming social distancing is still required (a safe assumption, I think).
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Sure, competent people like your wife can and have been doing hybrid classes.
But you’re telling me the 70-year-old English prof who can barely manage to avoid replying-all half the time is going to manage a Canvas site and all the b.s. that entails . . . in addition to their usual work? I don’t see it. Let’s get them set up with Zoom and try to avoid letting online lectures become the play-things of reddit incels before we get too wild.
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Just the thought of shelling out 20k per semester to take classes online is just face palmingly stupid to me.
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This is why a ton of middling private colleges will risk life and limb to get people on campus in the fall. It would be suicide for a school like NYU to go online only and have huge numbers of their students flock to state and city institutions at a fraction of the cost.
Right. These schools also can’t really reduce tuition as this is an admission of a diminished product. Going to be weird times.
I’m not really sure which way it’s going to fall as a lot of people may choose that online schooling is safer (in terms of health) and more stable than a lot of uncertain job prospects during all of this. So the schools will lose people with better options but perhaps gain just as many students without better options.
Blended classes are becoming way more common. I taught one last summer. Would have done so this year but covid19 moved it to online only.
Welp, in-person classes announced for this fall for me.
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TEA, which oversees Texas public schools has decided the school districts will not get the CARES money marked for them but instead will keep it themselves to cover 2020 shortfall.
TEA doesn’t educate anyone.
WTF that’s awful. Sorry, man.
Immigration law firms are reporting that the Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order that could restrict entry to the US for international Academic Student Employees holding H-1B, J-1, F-1/OPT, L-1 visas . If you are currently outside the country and have a non-immigrant visa, you are encouraged to enter the US as soon as possible.
Really bad news for grad students and non-citizen faculty currently abroad. Seems like incoming grad students may not be allowed to enter the country.
So the Trump executive order on immigration has gone through. I have no idea what the consequences will be. I do know that a few of our admitted grad students are having trouble getting visas that would allow them to enroll and be on campus, but I don’t think their problems are directly related to this executive order.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01885-6
In teaching news, we’re still waiting to see what shape it will take. Each faculty member is being asked for their preferred method of delivery:
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Remote learning/fully online. This is mandatory for classes above a certain enrollment, which may be 60 or 100 or somewhere in between.
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In-person. This would be normal teaching to a socially-distanced classroom. What this would mean for class size is unclear. One projection I saw for a tiered lecture room had two empty seats in between each student in a given row, and one empty row in between each occupied row. So that ends up looking like classrooms would hold maybe 20% of their normal capacity.
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Hybrid. This is the least clear, and the admin is offering 3 different models. What those three models would look like, assuming a class that would meet on Tuesday/Thursday in a normal world:
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I teach Tuesday/Thursday like normal. Half the students attend in person Tuesday and participate in Thursday class via Zoom. The other half of students attend in person Thursday and participate in Tuesday class via Zoom. I have no idea how this 50/50 split actually works because, as mentioned, classrooms will definitely not be able to hold 50% their normal capacity.
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For each week, I teach one half (e.g., the “normal” Tuesday class) live. I teach that class to half the students in person on Tuesday and the other half of the students on Thursday. I then provide the other half of the week’s material via online methods. This basically doubles my workload. The upside is that every student gets the same material in person.
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For each week, I teach one half (e.g., the “normal” Tuesday class) live to the full classroom on Tuesday, and the remaining portion to everyone online. I guess the thinking here is that there are limited buildings available to hold a full class of students (maybe even something like an unused theater), but not enough that everyone can have it for all of their classes.
Although we’re being asked for our preference, it seems clear that logistics/enrollment will ultimately determine how we teach. It’s super frustrating because I’m not sure which format I should be preparing for. This is not going to turn out well. Based on the spikes we’re observing in Texas, Arizona, etc. and the experience we’re seeing with college athletes getting COVID, I feel pretty confident we’re going to end up fully online by the end of October anyway.
This is an interesting article talking about the difficulties that universities are likely to have with in-person classes.
Key quote:
Many institutions appear to be assuming they can have up to half as many students as normal in their instructional spaces, but some of the most sophisticated analyses released so far, like Cornell University’s, conclude that “after accounting for six-foot distancing, classroom capacity is reduced to 13 to 24 percent, depending on configuration.”
I really think that my university (and presumably universities around the country) have absolutely no idea how they’re going to pull this off. I honestly think there’s a naive belief that classrooms will be able to safely operate at 50% capacity.
The good news is that none of this is going to matter because the current virus trajectory is going to result in all schools going fully-online anyway, despite whatever promises they’ve already made.
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6 feet is also basically made up, right? There’s no way I would want someone to six feet on either side of me indoors for 2-3 hours.
My university won’t even say what parameters they’re using to determine classroom capacity. 6 feet? 8 feet? 3 feet? Masks assumed/enforced? Physical barrier between students and instructor to block all the spittle I’ll be expressing?
¯\(ツ)/¯
I normally teach in a tiered lecture hall that holds roughly 45 students. I’ll be stunned if a safe capacity is more than 12. In the last several days, I’ve started to get very anxious about the idea of teaching in person, and I know there are many other instructors in my department who feel similarly.
I’m in California and there is no effin’ way I’m teaching in person. I’ll figure out something with Disability Services if I have to.
We’ve been given very vague “promises” that no one will have to teach in person if they’re not willing. At the same time, it’s been made very clear that the university wants to deliver a variety of instructional modes (online/hybrid/in-person) across all colleges/majors/courses. So I think what they’re hoping is that instructor preferences satisfy a nice distribution where they can both satisfy the instructor preferences while offering those different modes.
I think the proportion of instructors willing to teach in person will be much lower than they expect. I said that I’d be willing to teach in person, but that’s only because I’m scheduled to teach a very small phd course (5 or fewer students) and a class that’s currently got an enrollment of 10. I may end up regretting that willingness when I know what the actual environment will look like.
I feel especially bad for untenured and non-tenure track instructors - they may face a tough choice where they’re too afraid of losing their job to actually push for their preferred mode.
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Our university seems to be splitting the baby in an interesting way. The buildings will be open in the fall for everyone and everything except for classes (and certain lab sections of classes). The idea is that “essential” student services like the bursar and registrar and advisement centers can be opened while maintaining social distancing and minimizing risk. Will be able to have meetings with fewer than 10 but expect most dept and committee meetings will be run via zoom as they have been.
Faculty have also been given a bunch of flexibility as to how to offer their classes and there is extensive training going on about how to use the technology so you can design the class in any way that you decide is appropriate. The course designs will go through dept chairs and the provost office tho so it’s not a complete free-for-all.
Fall enrollment is slightly above last year’s numbers right now too.
Our school district (I will now have to middle-schoolers for the upcoming year) announced yesterday that the parents have the option to keep our kids home or send them to school. We have to commit for a semester. Gave the usual bullshit about masks being “encouraged” on buses, that there will be social distancing, yada yada yada.
Parents are basically split: some are happy that we have the choice, others are pissed that the district is being wishy-washy and has basically given us no information to help us make a decision. We have to make our choice by July 10.
I’m in the latter camp, mainly because we have no info. I want to keep the kids home, but there is going to be a lot of pressure to send them to school, especially (imo) for social reasons. My daughter is going to be in 8th grade, so that’s a social experience in and of itself and my son will be in his first year in middle school. Him staying home could set him back as far as meeting people if most kids return to class.
I’m not as concerned about the actual academic part, but they haven’t told us how any of it will work, so…