Wow what’s the reasoning for not teaching anything for the first month? Do they need more time to prepare remote classes?
But isn’t NYC opening schools? I know they have a hybrid plan with free child supervision/schoolwork supervision for 100,000 students. Did Gov. Cuomo okay that?
I thought about this early on. Especially for Lacs. Why not have a percentage of students that is solely online? Of course there is good /bad with every decision. I was actually thinking of this precovid.
NYC has said they are opening but I still wonder if it will really happen. I think as soon as the numbers rise it will be a shutdown or the union could weigh in more heavily by Sept. It seems to me the NY teacher’s unions have been a little quiet. I think they are waiting until plans are announced. MA union just spoke out at the end of last week.
Caltech finally released their plans last week.
Mostly online instruction and approx. 1/3 of their undergrads invited on campus in stages, to eventually include freshmen (no specific date given), with an option to decline and study remotely.
I see MIT is welcoming back 3000 researchers and most of its 7000 graduate students, so really it is just the undergraduates affected. The same at Caltech, I assume?
Homerdog, yes the MA demands by the teacher’s union were tough to read especially when you consider our grocery workers, healthcare workers, and everyone else out there working hard to put food on their tables and keep economy going so we don’t side into deeper despair. The states of MA did a very poor job with online instruction last spring. The union put up many roadblocks and continues to do so.
Phase 1 - classroom setup, learn about new health and safety protocols, prepare for student’s return and professional development. Time to learn new strategies of how to address student trauma
Phase 2 - meet students and families virtually or in-person to explain new health protocols. This has will be used to explain new health protocols including social emotional wellness checks, basic need assessment and evaluation of technology.
Phase 3 - This is where instruction begins around a month later (after opening with phase 1 & 2) either remotely or in-person.
Phase 4 - assessment of educational progress and public health and should take place 6-8 weeks after schools starts.
I highly doubt that LACs would expand into online learning. Even though class is remote right now classes are small and the personalization is still there with small groups etc. The whole model of the LAC and what they stand in terms of what a liberal arts education is does not work remotely.
Ah, I see. So NYC’s plans were to make DiBlasio look good, and could still be changed by the time school starts. I know there is already concern over some defiant people in NYC who are refusing to social distance and wear masks.
Some schools are primarily online already, and deliver these classes/experiences very well. Schools like Western Governors U, Southern New Hampshire, ASU, Liberty, and more have hundreds of thousands of degree seeking students studying fully online.
Many customers (students) are satisfied because they are getting good outcomes (jobs) for relatively low investment, resulting in decent ROI. This online disruption was coming well before covid.
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main
If traditional schools want to play in this game (and some already are), they face established, worthy competitors. Can more take it on? Sure, but it won’t be an easy path to increasing revenues, decreasing expenses, and/or improving cash flow.
Interestingly the document on NY school guidelines states that the students can not be forced to wear masks. If they choose not to they are to still be provided transportation an education. It is also not mandatory that students be tested if they show symptoms. They can return to school as soon as fever is not present for 24 hours.
So does anyone really think NYS schools will be open for long?
I’m not telling my son and his teenage friends that they really can’t enforce wearing masks. I think a lot of kids would have a lot of fun with that.
The University of Akron’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday unanimously authorized the elimination of 97 full-time professors out of about 570 total in response to a projected enrollment decline and ongoing budget woes. Some 21 full-timers also recently resigned or retired.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/16/budget-bloodbath-university-akron
We didn’t follow Caltech very closely since declining their offer in April, but yeah, looks that way.
“Full occupancy in graduate housing, given the apartment-like configuration of those spaces.”
Maybe so but look at this from 2016https://lacol.net/
Now press on the link in the top paragraph (blue). Think you will recognize some of those schools. Interesting they were looking into this in 2016.
@homerdog wrote
I agree. I don’t see LACs going out of style. So long as you have a capitalist class system you’re going to have luxury goods and people willing to pay for them. A big caveat will be their ability to continue siphoning off the brightest middle-class and URM kids as a kind of human hedge fund for future shifts in society; it’s still going to take money.
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Maybe not. But what happens to all the aides and assistants and custodians and admin staff who are not needed with no pupils at school? Will they all continue to get paid for doing mostly nothing like we did last spring? I think a lot of jobs are on the line if schools do not open and many of them are union members as well
from an article about what went wrong in israel. parts of the article say that sending K-5 back in person has much lower risk, and in the fall is likely what they will do, while older kids will be remote again.
“Because of the rigidity of teachers’ unions in Israel, there has been little room for creative out-of-the-box solutions that could reduce risks for teachers and also benefit students. For example, older or immunocompromised teachers could be matched with students around the country who are high-risk themselves or live with at-risk immediate family members, and pop-up virtual classrooms or tutoring sessions could be created. The development of large-scale, creative online alternatives to classrooms is still in the early stages, but may push forward if the virus shows no signs of abating.”
But what about the less desirable LAC with declining enrollment? What if they go virtual for Sophomore year with small groups and all of that but online while touring Europe? Small privates will be the first ones to embrace a hybrid system long term because it can be part of an experience other colleges don’t offer. The next will be publics that offer the big lecture classes online, so the students don’t have to get out of bed if they don’t feel like it.
@AlwaysMoving wrote:
I definitely see it transforming the traditional Junior Year Abroad. Imagine being able to study in real time from your room in the Marais district and touring Paris on days off. No need for a brick and mortar satellite campus.
The model certainly doesn’t work with the way remote learning is rolled out in all the examples we can see to date which mostly appeals to people with full time jobs or those stranded in some remote place with a lot of time on their hands.
I think there is plenty of opportunity to re-imagine the remote learning experience in a fashion that knocks the socks off anything any of us has ever seen before and the potential for LACs to distinguish themselves even more once again providing something you can’t get anywhere else.