I think you’re letting your fear of the slippery slope back to 100% remote cloud the picture. We have tools now that we didn’t have a few years ago and we should use them. Some kids are going to be too sick to keep up and will need to catch up later. Other kids are asymptomatic or mildly sick and can keep up remotely. So far my kid has not gotten sick (knock on wood) but if he did he’d struggle under the “get notes from friends” scenario. First, he’s dyslexic and learns best from audio presentations and lectures, and second he’s very introverted and has a tiny circle of friends, most of whom aren’t in the same classes with him. I’ll bet the professors prefer this method as well as opposed to trying to individually help a large number of sick kids. Also right now my kid’s school is making them isolate for 10 days, not just 5.
Would recorded lecture videos work for him if he were to be isolated for a few days? Recording lectures was a common practice at some schools prior to Covid, and has become more popular at many more places since Covid.
Yes recording would work, although it would increase the risk of procrastination!
In the past, schools haven’t had hundreds or thousands of kids all out over same short period of time.
Not sure I follow. Bowdoin and Colgate are both starting online, so as to avoid what is happening at Vanderbilt. And Bowdoin starts late anyway; with the one week online it isn’t offering in-person classes until the end of the month, hopefully when this wave will be waning. Still, the reason Boidon is going on-line until then is to
“ensure an equitable start to the semester for all students, allowing students who will need to remain at home because of a positive COVID test and those who test positive when they arrive on campus to engage in classes during the critical start of courses.” COVID-19: Page Archived | Bowdoin College
So Boidon, at least, doesn’t seem to agree with you that this is business as usual, with no reason to offer accommodations.
That’s what many of my daughter’s professors did for the first quarter. They recorded their lectures. My daughter, that attended the lectures in person, found it very helpful to go back and rewatch lectures in which she did not understand critical information. One day when she wasn’t so sure about a scratchy throat (she gets this often with allergies) she thought why not wait for the COVID test to come back and wasn’t stressed about missing a lecture. Finally, on a couple of occasions a professor that was dealing with a family situation couldn’t make it to campus and they all Zoomed in those couple of days. The grace and understanding of the majority of instructors and students seems to contradict the blanket policies coming from the administration. I understand they have different fish to fry but it still makes me wonder what the institutional priorities are.
They won’t do hybrid class. All remote for one week to deal with the possible influx of a lot of kids in isolation. After that, it’s in person for the rest of the semester. It’s clear if you read President Rose’s entire letter. Believe me, I’ve read every word he’s written in the last two years and it’s clear that Bowdoin believes remote and hybrid learning is not how school will be done there. They never did hybrid during Covid. They had remote classes in 2020-2021 where all kids were given iPad pros and professors were sent through training to learn best pedagogy for online learning. They didn’t stick cameras in lectures. They were creative about how classes were run to the best of their abilities until they could be back in person full time.
Here is the whole quote.
Classes begin for all students on Monday, January 24. With Omicron, there is the possibility that a number of students will test positive before leaving home and will therefore not be able to travel to campus or will test positive upon arrival and will be in isolation. To ensure that every student has the ability to begin their courses on an equivalent basis, all classes will be held remotely for arrival week only (January 24–28). All classes will be held in person beginning on Monday, January 31.
And Colgate is not starting online. The professors were given the option and it’s only for the first week. So far, D has heard from two profs. One said first class remote because not all PCRs will be back yet but second class and the rest going forward will be in person. Second prof said she has Covid right now so first class remote because she wants to make sure she has a negative rapid first and then second class and the rest in person.
I agree with Bowdoin that online at the beginning makes more sense than hybrid. And, like Bowdoin, I disagree with you in the beginning colleges ought to just make students and professors figure out like “in the 80s.”
I agree partly, but the distinction to me is that these kids don’t have a choice as to whether they’re sick enough to stay home from class. If you have a positive Covid test whether you’re deathly ill or asymptomatic you’re still quarantining for five days. In the “old days” kids could choose whether to go to class or not. If you had a class that you felt you had to attend you could drag yourself there even if you felt terrible. I also think if you’re going to bring the kids back, have them test and then require quarantine, the school had ample time to figure out a way to accommodate what was clearly an anticipated subset of the population that was not going to be able to attend class.
Students at our local k-12 schools will never know another snow day. Now whenever there’s inclement weather they just switch to virtual school. I have no doubt that all colleges that figured out remote for an entire year can provide at a minimum a zoom camera that would allow quarantined kids to listen in on the classroom. I don’t think the professors need to teach to them, they don’t need to participate but I think allowing them to be able to view the class and take notes on their own is not an unreasonable accommodation for the schools to provide.
I don’t think remote should be available all semester. Just until the initial “wave” subsides. Although profs making lectures previously recorded last year available would be nice and not a huge inconvenience.
I agree with how Bowdoin is handling it. I didn’t say I didn’t. One week of online and then back to class.
What I’m not sure about is always allowing a hybrid or online option
Seems like if Bowdoin does it, it’s fine. Any other school? Not so much.
If they have a laptop or chromebook at home. At the school I’m working at, they have a number of chromebooks and when they were remote, kids had them at home. Now they are back at school. If a student knows he’ll be out, he can take a chromebook home (say for 5 days of covid quarentine). Daily? No, they don’t take them home.
They do not have one for each student. They have a lot of them, but they also have the ‘Chrome graveyard’ as a lot of them have broken keys or plugs or screens. We had a snow day two weeks ago. We may have another on Friday. They just can’t keep up with every kid having one to go home every night.
They just sent out an email today telling teachers to put in a ticket for whatever number of new chromebooks they need, but I’m sure as soon as they get those in the next set will break.
Why are you misunderstanding me? I’m ok with one week remote. If Bowdoin was doing hybrid during the school year, I would not like that. They are not. Am I happy with their plan? Yes.
It’s a very specific plan. Remote for all for one week with good reason. Then back to class for all, which is what we expected in 2019 and what we are paying for.
While trying to fully integrate COVID-positive students into Zoom could be distracting to in-person students and detrimental to the learning process, I do not think it would be too much trouble to simply record lectures when a student is COVID-positive and send them directly to the student. I am not sure that recording the lectures for all students and posting them widely would be a good pedagogical decision, as this could incentivize missing class.
With regard to COVID cases, they peaked really quickly. The 14-day average positivity rate at Amherst College reached an all-time high at 2.94% on January 5, and the number of active student cases peaked at around 40 (I believe there are about 750 students on-campus right now). However, there were many less students who tested positive after the first week. The 14-day average positivity rate has now plummeted to 1.4%, and there are 11 active student cases.
Our k-12 are guaranteed 2 snow days, even though they can do remote learning. I think this is great.
My son has had traditional snow days this year, and every student in the high school(2,000+) has a school issued chrome book that they take home every day.
Some colleges have been recording lectures long before Covid. The lectures were recorded at the request of the professors, not mandated by the colleges. They’re almost always available to all students, and in some cases, to everyone. Because they were initiated by the professors themselves, they also tend to be of high quality and well done. These colleges generally don’t have attendance requirements. Students attend classes because they want to, not because they have to.
Students invariably like to have this option. The benefits are many. Students can preview a class. They can review what they may have missed in class. They can refresh their memories of certain materials covered in the class years later. They can even take overlapping classes if their schedules dictate.
Our experience is the same as @1NJParent . Even before Covid, lectures were recorded. Profs still had attendance requirements but the practice allowed students to re-watch lecture if they didn’t get the content the first time around, or watch a different prof’s lecture if they knew they were better at explaining a concept.
My D is at the end of week two of all in person classes except one. Likes her profs, study groups, and course content. Is thrilled to be back and into the grove.
BUT… Covid positivity rate is way higher than I’d like to see at 16%. It looked like it was coming down off a peak, but it went back up after the weekend. According to D, mask compliance is 100% indoors on campus but kids are going to bars and restaurants on weekends and photos and TV show masks under noses at games. 1/3 of the covid isolation beds are occupied. Cases are 98%+ asymptotic to mild so they seem be trudging on. Even though D is boostered, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before she’s positive.
I’m in a pre-k thru 5. There is no way the teachers could even switch to remote that quickly for a snow day. A week off? Sure, by about the third day they’d be able to present some things, but not a whole day of school. I think they can just have a snow day.
Today several schools in the area had late starts because the roads were icy. We didn’t! Sever of the colleges did too, not opening until 10 am.
To get back on topic with covid, several of the hs are having ‘walk outs’ because the students don’t think the schools are doing enough to protect them.
When I initially read this, I was outraged for the Vanderbilt kids but then I went back to see what exactly the wording is in the policies for my daughter’s school. They are online for 2 weeks and will be in person starting Monday. They are telling professors they MUST make accommodations for sick kids who cannot attend class, but no where does it mention zoom as an accommodation. I suppose the instructors can use that option if they want (and they are encouraging professors to teach remotely if possible if they are sick). They say professors have flexibility in how they accommodate students but some examples they give are recording lectures (which they may make available to the whole class, or just those who request due to illness) and providing notes. It seems like the professors at Vanderbilt could get creative if zoom is off the table.
Most of our kids’ classes aren’t lectures so I guess that’s the background for my opinion. S19 has probably 1/4 classes which are lectures (mostly physics classes). D21 had one this last semester- intro to psych. The rest were discussion based and small enough that participation was important. In those types of classes and in labs, recording lectures isn’t an option.
Also, aren’t there plenty of profs who do not want their lectures recorded on the off chance non-students would be using them for something? I thought many profs are protective of their material.