Individual students will be all over the map on how they see it. Students with no other impediments may be miffed that the class pace slowed down, or that they are not getting Hollywood style video productions. Those with other stresses and issues may well appreciate the efforts of the faculty to be considerate of their circumstances. You can never win. It’s only lose. And judgment. Lots of judgment.
I can tell you what the future looks like at our college. We’re waiting for guidance from the state to see if/when/to what extent we can open. We’re waiting for current accepted students to commit. We’re waiting for word from the feds about whether or not VISAs will be granted to international students. We’re waiting for other countries to decide if they’ll let their students come. We’re waiting for our college budget to be passed, and we’re waiting to see if we’ll still have jobs by summertime.
If everyone is waiting for each other to make the first move, nothing is going to happen anytime soon.
If on-campus housing is closed, how could an on-campus living requirement prevent a student from renting an apartment off campus?
@houstonfrshmom I have two in college. I will name the schools here.
My oldest is at GWU. For online learning I feel like they moved well. They were using blackboard anyway and continued to use that platform. 3 of her classes run at the same time. Lab for her science was more worksheet based and TA led. Its not ideal, but things have been academically good. BUT the University has handled this very poorly. Kids stuff being held hostage, poor communication.
My youngest is at RIT. For online learning it has not been great. One professor was going to be out anyway in having a baby. Not a single professor is meeting at any time, and is just putting lectures on youtube, or something similar. He was told because of the international situation. He has seen his work drop. One class is giving projects and if they need help to reach out. BUT RIT has been top notch in how they have handled this and with communication. They have good P/F options if they want,. Also overall much easy to deal with normally as well.
My oldest was looking to get an apartment this summer in DC. she still wants to do this, and if they are online in the fall is undecided to do classes , as this would be her last semester. She might get an internship or job instead (nanny for one family). Where she would be, there is a safeway, wholefoods, and TJ’s nearby. She has lots of friends that are likely going back to DC.
My youngest would be in a college owned apartment, so theoretically living on campus , but with his own bedroom . My concern if they go back online in the fall is , in fact, that he is already a socially distancing kid, aka has no friends here at home, so he is very isolated. I have thought about subletting an apartment in Rochester so that he could have some socialization with peers. I am also concerned because they would have to do a better job with their instruction. He has not stated that he would “defer” a semester, but based on the sequencing of his classes is his major might not be possible. My bigger concern is summer. he has NOTHING and I mean NOTHING to do, and no friends either. His prospects have dried up. If nothing else maybe work at Kroger. If this continued to fall, I am afraid for his mental well being.
News out of Singapore:
Anyone know how their foreign worker dormitories compare to college dorms?
I am surprised that my s19 has mostly recorded classes online. I would have thought that classes would run at the regular time, which live lecture just as it would during the school year. I think if schools are unable to start in fall, going online until able to be on campus makes sense…perhaps sometime during the semester it could move back to in person classes…maybe not. Some areas of the country may be ready to start back up sooner than other areas…but try to run as close to normal as possible online until classes can resume on campus.
For housing and study abroad mentioned earlier…if student who was going to study abroad is not able to do that, I am wondering if there would be more housing open up on the US campus because other students were not able to study in US as planned…international students who planned to live on campus but returned home and can’t get back to campus.
The air force academy is not on campus. They went home weeks ago.
The military isn’t continuing as normal. My daughter’s boyfriend joined, was sworn in, and was to report for basic training on March 30. On the 26th he was told it was on hold, maybe until Aug. He’s already signed, so can’t just walk away. They don’t know if they will pay him for this time. He’d given up his apartment, my daughter had moved back to her old job (which is now on hold), he’d moved everything to his mother’s house for storage, and now he’s staying with his mother too because he has no where to go.
The only good thing was he hadn’t cut his hair or beard yet.
@houstonfrshmom , if you search +“coronavirus” or “covid-19”, you should be taken directly to that college’s page where they posted all of their important updates as all of this developed. Could give you an idea on how they handled it and/or how much communication was done.
As for how each college is doing with online learning, that’s much harder to figure out. I have two kids at separate colleges and it seems very, very dependent on the class and the professor. Plus it seems to be a moving target of sorts…some things improve over the weeks, some things fall off (maybe other students were having trouble?).
I would hope that if classes are online in the fall, there would be some standards and minimums set at the college or program level, but this was so abrupt, not to mention happening during spring break, not to mention that all of the professors are working from home and also responsible for their own kids’ schooling, etc etc all the difficulties, hopefully much of that would be ironed out by then and things will look different (and better) than they do now.
Many, if not most, colleges use Zoom for synchronous and interactive lectures. Many of those lectures are also recorded so students can review later. Some colleges use only asynchronous recorded videos, which is potentially a red flag.
this was the most promising article yet.
https://insidehighered.com/views/2020/04/16/practical-advice-how-colleges-can-responsibly-reopen-fall-opinion?utm_content=buffereb28f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=IHEbuffer&fbclid=IwAR0s53k_c5rL92oTLPs-SdgreCiyQtl0G1D2NaYJkBPkG3-FCL1kkMvnaJI
Agree. Colleges must record lectures and make them available to watch on-demand. That supports students across time zones (and in other countries), mitigates network connectivity issues, and allows students to re-review difficult material.
I’m still surprised how online/interactive learning hasn’t progressed. When I was working on my MBA in 1992 at a large state school they had video conference learning. It was actually pretty good. It was like a TV studio.
They had a well laid-out platform for the professor with everything he needed. Every student in the audience had a mic. The class was broadcast to satellite campuses. They had video and a mic. It was fairly interactive and I don’t remember it being any worse than normal classes. Granted, the topic was interesting and the professor was good but the presentation side wasn’t lacking.
The article in post 710 is very hopeful. I am not sure how it would apply to the many schools that have students living off campus, nor how one could guard against students leaving campus ever.
It doesn’t supersede it, as in an enforceable law. It’s a commitment that students agreed to when they voluntarily chose that college. For most students, it’s a feature, not a bug. If your spouse asks you to please not put those scratchy sheets on the bed, he’s not superseding your right to sleep on whatever sheets you want. He’s asking you to respect his needs, and because of your relationship, you want to respect them. You exist as a team.
I’m not sure 4 wks of rapidly going online almost overnight reflects more than an individual professor’s ability to adapt quickly. I wouldn’t expect what is seen today to reflect what will be available in the future if both professors and students expect it to be online *(many students went home unprepared for being there long-term. Some went home wo textbooks.)
Re #705 for @Mom2aphysicsgeek - the foreign workers dorms house construction workers and other laborers that enter S’pore under a certain work visa type. (Not the same work permit that more professional foreign national workers hold.).
I would not try to compare the dorms directly with those used by students. Different populations.
As with all group housing, I suspect there is much that can be learned from studying spread in these worker dorms, nursing homes, etc.
Most of us don’t have TV studios in our homes.
My s19 was an online hs student and they had live lessons with teacher (usually only once or twice a week per subject) and it was in real time and it seemed pretty smooth…allowed for class time discussion by typing in and seeing what others were saying. I am just surprised it is not the same during this online learning time in college. I wouldn’t think a time difference would make that big of a difference for a full-time student-but just my opinion. All the online hs classes were also recorded and students were able to access those if they were unable to be there or wanted to rewatch. It was a good system for online. I think a lot could be learned from the online hs and colleges that were already doing it that way. I value the college experience on campus but hope that after colleges are able to resume on campus, that they may continue to record lectures for students who can not attend class–like for a lengthy illness. It might encourage someone to stay home if they have something contagious rather than fear missing class. My son has a chronic illness and while in the hospital he had time to watch a lecture if it were available…of course he didn’t feel like it and his hs teachers were accommodating and understanding but I could see if my D21 were in a similar situation, she is the type of student who would appreciate learning and keeping up in class.
If the schools were all holding classes at the same time as when on campus, those students in California would be attending an 8 am lecture at 4 am from an east coast school.
I’ve thought of how this would have been if I’d been sent home from school (of course it wouldn’t have been possible since I’m pre-internet generation). Home to 5 other kids (my sister was out of college but back home). Three dogs, my grandfather living with us (and whistling constantly). No extra bedrooms, no quiet place to study. Maybe a 4 am class would have been perfect?
Could be both in the case of colleges, with a live lecture that is being recorded for later viewing. Some classes at some colleges may have been doing that already.