I agree that hybrid classes are worse for the students attending either in person or remotely, or both. They almost never work well for all students.
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!!!
I swear I never hear anyone here agree with me on this. I hear a lot more about how students like being able to just âtune inâ from their dorm rooms, etc. and how hybrid isnât all that bad. It seems so impersonal to me. Our high school is hybrid and all classes are synchronous and itâs awful. If youâre in school, youâre still masked up and distanced and the teacher still has to teach to those kids and to the kids âat homeâ being zoomed in. Discussions are very difficult with two different groups at the same time. We can have up to 50% of students go into school but fewer than 30% bother because itâs not worth it. I would think it would be similar for hybrid college classes.
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I hope I am wrong, too, @bgbg4us. My college kid is counting on it. But her high school graduation in May ( masked, distanced) was postponed by parents who wanted a more normal ceremony. Unfortunately our covid numbers then got much worse, not better, so the ceremony was scrapped altogether in August. Predicting the future with this virus is hard.
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us too for our S20.
Even with the chaotic vaccine rollout, Iâm confident that nearly everyone (other than those who canât due to medical reasons) will be vaccinated on college campuses by fall. Whether the vaccine techonology can stay ahead of new variants is my only concern.
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I understand why we need to be cautious and certainly not start celebrating the end of the pandemic but last May was way different than now. While we still canât predict the future, we do know we have vaccines, all of which do cover the new variants and will do so even better with a booster, and more and more people are saying they will take the vaccine. Iâve seen many reports that say the percentage of people willing to get it keeps increasing.
Our graduation is being planned for spring in a few different ways and we will have a ceremony (or a few mini ones) based on the gathering rules for outside come May. We are also planning a prom at our high school. It wonât be the normal one at Navy Pier with the boat ride on Lake Michigan afterwards but it will be something even if kids have to go in rounds and not all at the same time. They will get to dress up and have some sort of celebration.
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I think it totally depends on how âhybridâ is done.
My D had two hybrid classes last semester. The lecture was fully online but labs and recitations were in person. Students werenât sitting in their rooms alone watching the lecture. They went with a few friends to open classrooms, socially distanced themselves, and watched lecture together. Office hours were in person too.
Even for Dâs fully on line class, she still was able to see the prof during office hours and exam review sessions.
Overall, the semester went way way better than she expected.
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That class does sound better but itâs also not available to students who must do all remote class for whatever reason. They would be able to see the lecture but then not participate in the rest of the class.
I just read an opinion piece from the Chicago Tribune about why the J & J vaccine should go to young adults, including college aged kids. The author felt that since this group is lower risk, they should get the vaccine that is less effective and save the more effective vaccines for the higher risk groups. He also is concerned that college aged kids will start getting the vaccines at the end of the semester which might make the logistics of getting their second dose challenging should they move home should they get one of the the 2 dose options. Finally, he feels that while this group is low risk, they are potentially high spreaders, and getting them vaccinated might help up reach herd immunity quickly. Especially if we can reach them while they are all on campus and get a lot done quickly. Just some food for thoughtâŠ
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Well, that makes sense and would be great. Not sure how his message gets out to those in charge of making that decision though.
I agree. I donât think we will ever have a vaccine with 100% efficacy against 100% of the variants. The sooner people realize this, the better.
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I agree with you too homerdog!
With that said, I do think this pandemic will accelerate fully remote college offerings, and increase the number of people who think fully remote is in fact, ok. So the leaders in remote learning (WGU, ASU, SNHU, etc) should continue to see growth (and pre-pandemic they had been experiencing rapid growth). Maybe there will be some new players too.
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That âhybridâ arrangement seems to make sense.
Is the reason the recitations can be done in person because the recitation group are smaller so they can all fit in a classoom with sufficient physical distances between them?
Exactly - a 20 person recitation is easier to find lecture space to socially distance.
For a while Dâs department was looking to just add more sections of each class but they didnât have enough classrooms for that to happen. What they ended up doing was prioritizing the foundational courses for the major to meet fully in person and then doing the rest hybrid. Her fully online course was a required selective but not directly tied to her major.
Our HS is going to start back at school next week- with three rotating groups- 1 in person and 2 at home. I donât think it is going to work that well at all. One of the AP teachers said he has to keep everything online, so even when you are in school you will be on your computer. I am happy for those who want to go back, but I think this is just going to be disjointed and we have very little time to adjust. I think the most days any group will be in school is 25 days. Not sure it is worth it.
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Yes, vaccines wonât be and donât have to be 100% effective. The higher the efficacy, the higher the vaccination rate among the population, the quicker the virus can be brought under control assuming the herd immunity threshold (which is a function of the vaccine efficacy, the vaccination rate and the transmissivity of the virus) is crossed. The number of new cases will gradually converge to zero but it will still take time.
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Here, it seems that itâs only worth it for kids who find they canât get their act together to work from home and feel more focused sitting in desks at schools. Or for kids who really need more support like some with IEPs Still, they only get to go into school two days a week so itâs not much better.
Until the distancing requirements are lifted, we wonât have any normal school here.
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This is the rate limiting factor for many colleges too.
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Our school board discussed trying to get the kids who were identified by schools to be struggling in more. Hopefully they can do that- of course their parents arenât the ones who yell the loudestâŠ
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As someone with extremely low platelets, and seeing a healthy 55 year old Miami doctor die after receiving the shot due to platelets reduced to 0, I can tell you that the risk of getting covid is far easier for me to accept than the possibility of death. There is no way given my platelet count that I would ever get the mRNA therapy. However, I am cautiously optimistic about the JNJ vax as I believe itâs an attenuated vaccine. Itâs very easy for everyone on this forum to assume that we are all able to just get the vaccine.
That said, I live in a state that has been open with almost no restrictions since the original lockdowns were lifted late last spring. I have had to travel to care for my sick mother (on a plane, at least 6 times) during the last 10 months. I have never felt afraid. Ever. I am in good shape, exercise daily, take vitamins D, C and zinc. I would think that given the empirical data that is available, more Americans would see the need for healthy living. But thatâs just me.
Living is more than existing. And this comes from someone who really canât get a vaccine (perhaps the JNJ one might work for me).
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