Are online classes viable if half the students and professors are sick?
I’m guessing that you think quarantined people are generally not very sick, which might very well be the case I don’t know.
My daughter just dropped a lab class because it is online for at least 40% of the quarter. In her estimate the instruction she has received for online lab courses has been the most underwhelming. She is hoping for an in person lab experience in the near future.
I also am struggling to understand some of the decisions coming from university administrators. But I continue to try to understand.
Well, there are a large number of colleges that are planning on having in-person classes from the start of the spring semester so I guess we’ll get some data regarding that.
At my son’s college Omicron started exploding right as finals were happening. Most students went home a week or so after that. Many students he knows have since gotten Omicron while on winter break. Omicron is raging in our state right now. Honestly I imagine a rather large number of students and faculty will have been exposed and recovered by the time they return for spring semester.
My son’s college is scheduled to return to in-person instruction at the start of the spring semester on January 24th. I fully expect there to be many cases. I also expect the highly vaccinated campus, 98.5% students and faculty, to have mostly rather mild or even asymptomatic cases. Sure there are going to be students and faculty quarantining for a week or so. Then those individuals will return to learning or teaching. Many students will get assignments done while quarantined and many professors will do remote instruction while quarantined. It won’t just be a complete disconnect for everyone.
I’m not really sure how much more disruptive in-person will be. In a month or so we’ll have more data though as some colleges will be delaying in-person classes while others won’t. It might be interesting to see the results. Really there is already data from the last few semesters regarding colleges that provided in-person instruction. Many were able to pull it off without major disruptions.
I’m sure you saw that they do not require vaccination. It’s vaccination OR a negative test in past 72 hours, which isn’t very effective. So essentially, they are allowing mass crowds of potentially unvaccinated, potentially covid positive spectators, yet online classes. Not impressive decision!
I think the reasoning for asking the healthy roomie to move is because the sick roommate has already contaminated the room, so better for the healthy one to go someplace clean.
Probably less of a factor now that the surfaces aren’t a concern, but I’m guessing that’s the reason.
Also, depending on how sick the sick one is, it may be more difficult for her to pack up and move. And if dedicated isolation spaces are full, it’s definitely going to be harder for the sick one to convince a friend to let her sleep on her floor.
You are correct, as of right now, BC will not have grab and go meals and will institute a temporary masking period in January. Students must test negative prior to arriving, will be tested upon arrival, and booster clinics will be offered during the month of January. (Booster are mandated for the spring semester).
BC does have separate quarantine housing at Pine Manor College and will adhere to the MA dept. of health guidelines (which are the CDC guidelines.) Basically 5 days of isolation for infected and no quarantine for vaccinated, close contacts. BC has a vaccination rate of over 99%. Classes begin on 1/18.
I haven’t seen any schools with semesters starting Jan 24 or later say they’re pivoting to online classes. There may be one or two here or there, but it’s the ones starting tomorrow or next week that are moving things online for a while. You’re absolutely right that your son’s school will probably have a high proportion of the student body recovered from Omicron by the time they come back. These other schools are just trying to achieve the same thing before they meet face to face.
While even Omicron can be serious, on highly vaccinated campuses, I think it’s fair to expect that the majority of those quarantining would be in the mild category. A handful of them won’t be up to attending even online classes, but peer tutors and professor office hours can get a handful of students up to speed again. If large numbers of students miss the first two weeks of class, that could make it hard to get that extra help once they’re released from isolation.
Clearly people ( on both sides of this argument) are too dug into their current opinion to have a productive exchange on this topic. The last two things I will say on this is that:
I struggle to understand the logic of the argument that in-person sporting events are bad while also using them as justification for other in-person events (in-person classes)
Albeit at the graduate level, I have given or participated in several guest lectures over the past several years. Most students are online during the entire class. While not ideal for labs, for many classes, I wonder if online lectures are that big of an adjustment for students accustomed to following along with lectures using decks already posted online.
On a lighter note, if I offered $10 to anyone who can successfully schedule a PCR testing appointment (in NY metro), then receive results in a 72 hour window as preparation for a game next week, I doubt I would spend > $20. Unfortunately, 10,000 people (or mass crowds) using this option is not a possibility at present. (Sorry if this sounds like a dig. This is not my intention.)
The unavailability of pcr testing appointments and delays in getting results sound like excellent reasons for colleges to stop surveillance testing, and only test those who are symptomatic. The healthy ( or at least asymptomatic and vaxed) can go on with life.
Glad to hear you thought remote learning via lectures was great. Many did not feel that way, and many Professors do not use online presentations.
Neither the sick roomie nor the well roomie should have to do much to move rooms. Staff should help take care of that. And the opinion here is that it’s just a “mild cold.”
I wonder how parents here who think take-and-go is a travesty would feel if their student had difficulty finding a place to camp out? I bet they wouldn’t be happy.
The school should take care of it all (not saying they act as professional movers; just that they arrange for alternate housing for either the isolated or healthy roomie, and offer help to move if needed). If the students are on campus, they have to take care of them. No different than arranging something for students if they have to leave the dorms because of mold, no heat, water problems, etc.
I get that some colleges are shifting things in an attempt to avoid the Omicron crunch happening during in-person classes. I hope their plans actually work out in that two week or so period and it doesn’t just become the start of another more extended period online.
It is interesting that many who are shifting are still having students come to campus and occupy housing though as opposed to just letting the Omicron wave pass further along while students are away. $$$$
I think the 10% figure is rounded up, because in an email sent to students a few days before move-in for January term, they said 450 students were scheduled to move in on January 2, and at that point winter athletes had already moved in (they had to move back in right after Christmas, because multiple teams had competitions the last week of December). Considering roughly a quarter of students are varsity athletes, I would roughly estimate that 1/3 of those are winter athletes, which would suggest approximately 8% of the student body (~150 students) would have already been on-campus by virtue of being winter athletes, plus students who could not go home for winter break. Given that about 180 students stayed on-campus after students without special circumstances were booted from campus in March 2020, I would estimate that roughly another 165 students were already on-campus by virtue of special circumstances (I removed 15 because some of those 180 students with special circumstances are likely winter athletes as well, so there is some overlap). By this estimate, there would be roughly 450 students who moved on-campus in early January + 150 students who moved back in the previous week for winter athletics + 165 students who stayed on-campus due to special circumstances = ~765 students currently on-campus, which is a little bit less than half of the student body.
Also, with regard to it being “only the second year they’ve offered it”, it is only the second year they’ve had a FORMAL January term with for-credit classes, but for many years prior to COVID, there was an Interterm period with non-credit (for fun) classes and many recreational activities, and I believe about half of students each year came back to campus for that.
Merely to clarify- I don’t have experience w/ remote learning. I mentioned observing students in a classroom accessing lecture slides on Canvas/Blackboard during face-to-face lectures. This was in a business school; I recognize it may be different in undergraduate settings and in other areas of study. I am just curious- not debating the point. I don’t know how difficult it is operationally to pivot from f2f to online or the reverse
[Bowdoin will do rapids on arrival and PCRs too. PCRs again three days later. Class remote for first week as they are assuming they’ll have a decent number of positives and want to make sure all can take part in first week of class. Grab and go temporary until second round of PCRs are complete. At that point they expect dine in.
Students isolate in their rooms if a symptomatic or minor cold like symptoms.
Booster must have been administered by Jan 21. Fewer than five students total had medical exemptions for the vaccine for fall semester. No religious exemptions were allowed.
I do not think the primary motivation is money. Colleges want to get a handle on how many students are infected with CV and hopefully curtail the spread before they lift restrictions. If schools asked students to remain at home for two weeks while classes were taught remotely, they would still have to undergo some sort of testing/quarantine period once students arrive, further delaying the start of in-person instruction.
Offering remote instruction allows those who do test + to keep up with their classes, and to stagger arrivals across a longer time period.
I guess you don’t know any students who’re trying to be careful. Students with young children and babies. Immunocompromised students, students with vulnerable family members they live with or see often.
I know these students, and while they’re depressed about how careless and stupid so many of their schoolmates are, it’s adults who’re throwing them and their lives and their family members’ health and lives under the bus who make them very, very angry. They’ll remember this for a long time, because they’d thought adults were responsible and thoughtful. They’ve learned different but it still shocks them to hear actual adults talking this way.
In not too long, I keep reminding olds like ourselves, they’ll be in charge. Some of them are already in charge. And while in general they’re remarkably fairminded, there’s a limit to what they’ll do on behalf of people who treated them like that when they were just on the verge of adulthood, forcing them to be the adults for everyone before they were ready.