So it sounds like a good portion of the private schools in New England have all contracted with the same lab to do all their testing. What could possibly go wrong? Seriously, I hope people have a back up plan because this sounds like everyone is putting all their eggs in the same basket.
For freshman, the first year residential experience is really central to shaping your friendships in college, so colleges are doing everything they can to maintaining the quality of that experience. Within their pod, it will be very much as normal since a pod is similar to living at home in terms of COVID risk. Residential advisors will be with each pod and for the smaller schools it will be easier to have libraries and student centers open with fewer restrictions. As for gap years, several parents and students I know thought about it but there were not that many travel or experiential opportunities available with the travel and work restrictions. So, if they had a choose between staying at home for an entire year vs going to college, they would go to college this fall. Also, for some schools, they have increase fin aid contributions for this year only. Costs will only go up more in one year or two. Williams reduced tuition 15 percent for next year as well.
Actually, it depends on the acoustics of the room, which can be very complicated. We have one building with larger lecture halls (75 - 150, not ginormous). I have taught courses there numerous times. Last time I did it was a fall course and the room was sweltering until mid-October (old ventilation system).
The students could hear me just fine, but if they tried to speak, trying to hear them from the front was like trying to hear people with a helicopter hovering above you. And being students (i.e. shy about speaking up) they were not inclined to project sound past a 6-foot radius. Also being students, some of them wore hoodies which covered most of their existence, despite the sauna conditions of the room. I was frequently astounded at their shear ability to continue existing without melting.
This is pre-Covid, no? Now the students will be wearing masks. Way harder to communicate.
Well, yeah, presumably. I’m just wondering how they are working that, since you can’t just tell faculty who are contracted to teach 3 courses that they have to teach 6, or whatever. It’s a little more complicated than that. At our school, they are having the faculty do 3 Fall, 4 Spring or vice versa. At least that’s the latest sort of plan.
https://www.si.com/college/2020/07/09/options-dwindling-2020-season-big-ten
SI thinking fall football is in jeopardy and a spring season doesn’t look great for a lot of teams either.
Colby is also using the Broad Institute for testing.
S19 said he gave ratings based on how effectively the prof managed remote learning - good lectures, clear and easy access to online material, responsive to email questions, tests that were a good balance of flexible versus secure-against-cheating.
@milgymfam wrote:
That is concerning. But, not as much as it would be if they were all depending on the government supply chain right now. And, just to put it into perspective, if you added up all the student bodies of NESCAC plus BC, Purdue’s would still be bigger.
@circuitrider for fall, Bowdoin only adding about 600 students to that testing group instead of 2000. I think the schools are all testing staff and faculty too but not sure how many people that is.
I think I remember the drawing but thought it was just a rendering. Don’t think it’s 6ft in every direction… Could sit every other seat in a lecture hall and for 25 kids would just the first 3 rows from the ones I saw and have been in.
Plus keep in mind that these class halls are built for speech acoustics. Your example was not hearing the person in front of you at a store. Lots of noise at stores also that you don’t realize. Much different from an acoustically treated room like a hall. Sure it’s not going to be perfect. Maybe they will have to set up mics to use. Don’t know. Let’s see what they figured out before critiquing it. Some they will need to adjust and make up as they go. There will be some successes and some failures. Schools like my son’s will be more successful then others since converting to this was already in the works and being done. I am kinda interested to see what technology they will use to make this a better experience then last semester. It will be an involving process. Schools like your will probably be able to see what worked and what didn’t and to implement best practices.
I’ll be curious how the seating works! Not sure why someone can be one foot behind someone if sitting in row after row. That’s not how the six feet rule works anywhere else. Well, except airplanes? We know that’s not particularly safe and at least there’s air circulation above every seat on a plane.
Maybe it has something to do with ‘forward facing’? Perhaps that is a mitigating factor for strict 6 foot rules. And if certain classrooms are able to change air filtration or open windows perhaps that plays a factor as well.
I thought the American Academy of Pediatricians amended the 6 foot recommendation to 3 feet with a mask?
Yes, here is part of AAP’s position:
The rest of the world uses the WHO guidelines of 3 ft, not CDC’s 6 ft (neither are based on all that great of data). These are all guidelines, not requirements…especially important as a concept if processing these guidelines as requirements leads to the decision to not have f2f school.
I think you’re right on that. 6 feet is ideal but then they said 3 feet is acceptable
I’m imagining a new app that is tinder for rush.
I am looking for parent’s suggestion as how to minimize covid exposure if schools open up for younger kids. Thanks
D’s LAC is bringing all students back in the fall. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week they conducted dorm room draw (delayed by 4+ months). Then on Thursday, they allowed students to see the teaching plans for the fall courses they had previously selected and make schedule changes if desired. Courses were labeled as distance learning, classroom and online mix, in-person, etc. Then they had 24 hours to notify the school if they are returning in person, taking only distance classes, or taking a leave of absence. So by the end of today students were to decide on their educational plan.
It seems some people were quite unhappy with the school’s decision to conduct business in that sequence, because the administration quickly backtracked a bit to say that decisions are still required by today but will not be binding. A mess!
D’s strategy was to select a single room in a dorm with single bathrooms for small student clusters. Her room is on the first floor in an isolated hallway, so no elevator buttons or stair railings will need to be touched. Yesterday she dropped a distance-taught course in favor of a classroom-taught course, and was pleased to see that an earlier schedule change made for other reasons resulted in having another in-person class instead of an online one. So she will have 2 in-person, one hybrid, and one distance online.
Based on the limited details provided, we believe she will not receive an acceptable experience online or hybrid, but has no option as 2 courses are requirements for her major. The online professor plans to conduct class via Zoom only one of the 2 class days, and will have students watch documentaries and whatnot on the other day. The hybrid class plans for a few ftf meetings at the start of the semester to get students going on projects, but then will revert to all online assignments with limited online contact time.
Edited to add: if the course is to be offered in a distance format, I am not sure why that should mean less teaching time. I am not happy about paying for my student to watch documentaries and self-teach. Where are all the innovative strategies and improved technology?
As students?
As faculty?
As alums?
As parents?
As staff or admin?