Universities and the Coronavirus

The Quarantine Zone
1

The universities (colleges) were in a tough position once cases of coronavirus started to increase. They could anticipate lots of cases, and being on campus would cause big increases. They generally made a good call fairly quickly (with some outliers) about prioritizing staff and student safety. Our local uni extended a break until it could get all classes online, and would play things like labs and exams by ear.

I suspect (and don’t know) that the online experience is probably mediocre. Obviously this would depend on the course, who teaches it, the quality and the individual learner. People supposedly only recall 1/3 of an online book compared to a real one (although I have some trouble believing that). Straight lectures would probably do better than anything complex which relies on student teacher interaction or Socratic methods.

Most schools seem to have cancelled summer programs, seem dubious about the fall term and are talking contingency plans. I would guess a lot of students would not want to pay the same fees for an online experience that leaves out much of the intangibles. Despite not much evidence of problems in younger cohorts, there is talk of extending social distancing for longer than anyone wants.

So, my question. Will this permanently force schools online and damage their brands? What steps should they take given their hands are tied by the same public health concerns everyone is facing?

2

They need to plan. But I think they will face big challenges if they can’t update their plan or defend the value that they offer.

3

My stepdaughter is graduating this year, so it looks like she got out at a good time. She had good grades and wasn’t counting on finals to make or break her. They still haven’t returned from spring break, and while they’ve been gone an entire dorm building has been cleared out. The student’s belongings and dorm stuff packed for them and stored in a facility so that the dorms could house those who have been pressed into service at the hospital nearby. Graduation ceremony postponed, but really, it ain’t gonna happen.

How the next year starts is going to be the weird part.

4

It’s worth noting there’s a huge difference between online courses which were designed as online courses and one’s that were adapted from in-person classes on the fly.

5

The lil’wrekker has completed her junior year. She has 2 classes for the summer program. Online.
She’s very worried about the fall classes.
She may be doing her Senior year on line.
No overseas study. No student teaching. She’s very disappointed.
I suspect we’ll get through it, somehow.

6

I doubt it will permanently force schools online (except for schools that end up closing in the near future, of which there may, unfortunately, be many). This isn’t going to go on forever, and the reason why universities aren’t already mostly online (which people ten years ago were predicting would have happened by now) is that there are many, many students who are either unsuited to online learning, or simply do not like it.

That said, here are a few observations from my perspective as a professor who had never taught online before, and then had to adapt to it very quickly:

– It isn’t as bad as I thought, and you actually can have a fair amount of student-teacher interaction through Zoom, Slack, discussion boards, etc. The limiting factor is mostly the size of the class, not the medium.

– But: There is a lot of stuff you truly cannot do online, and this is true of all subject fields, not just the obvious ones like lab sciences or studio art. I can’t do collaborative performance activities in my Shakespeare classes, I can’t give my Early Brit Lit students the experience of actually holding a page from a medieval manuscript in their hands, a whole lot of activities involving group discussion and interaction got a lot harder. Since we had nine weeks of face-to-face classes this semester before we went online, I’m not feeling the loss so much now, but I will if this goes on for all of fall semester.

– A lot of students really do not have good access to technology. Many are dependent on smartphones or cheap tablets; some have no wi-fi access at home and depend on public hotspots. These students are at serious risk of being unable to complete their education.

– Most universities these days (and I’m talking about Directional State U. or Not-So-Selective Liberal Arts College, not Harvard) are all about retention, retention, retention. Going online-only deals a massive blow to their ability to retain students. I have several who were passing when the course was face-to-face but have simply vanished since we went online. If this becomes a permanent feature – and especially if it’s coupled with a massive recession* that leads to lower tax revenue and funding cuts from state legislatures – it’s going to be UGLY, and a lot of institutions that were teetering on the margins are going to disappear. If we go back to face-to-face classes fairly quickly – whether because we get a vaccine or a really robust test-trace-and-isolate program, or whether people just say “Fuck it” and learn to live with the risks** – most of them will probably rebound.

  • Historically, enrollment and tuition revenue often increase during recessions, although funding from other sources, like state budget appropriations and donations, dries up. If we’re looking at a a recession combined with extensive social distancing, though, enrollment and revenue from other sources could plummet. It’ll be a bloodbath.

** As a sixteenth-and-seventeenth-century lit scholar, I think it’s not only possible but likely that this is what will happen, and sooner than we think. People have lived with much, much higher chances of dying from epidemic disease than this. And they kept streaming into urban areas for centuries, knowing it would greatly increase their chances of dying of epidemic disease; the material and immaterial benefits of rubbing elbows with lots of other people, potentially infectious or not, were too high to pass up. And risks that are familiar don’t really register as much as the brand-new ones, and people adjust their baselines for what is familiar pretty quickly.

7

Yes, though my university hasn’t made an effort to ask those of us who already design and teach online classes if we might have some wisdom, shortcuts, or ideas about how to do this.

8

I had a conversation with my sophmore at Chapman University. Basically, no way in hell do I want to pay for summer school if it’s on line. We pay for a private university for the full experience and a really high professor student ratio, and on line it’s not that much better than Devries.

I truly hope that by fall we are in a place where it’s safe for kids of all ages to go to school and university.

9

That’s just stupid.

10

Wow. That’s crazy. Over the extended-an-extra-week break in late March, our university’s Center for Teaching and Learning — which includes the folks who train and help professors create online courses in normal times — worked TIRELESSLY to give all instructors the tools they need (conceptual, pedagogical, and technical) to make this transition, and within departments, too, it’s been ALL ABOUT those with online teaching experience sharing ideas with those without it.

11

One major function of a university with a campus is to offer the"college experience".
Not all students want this,and they can do fine at a community college, living at home with their parents.
But if I had a child graduating from high school this year, I would not send him “off to college” in September.

I’m referring to one certain type of student:
The one who wants to go to a four-year university, away from home, living in the dorms (“residence halls” for you Brits and Canadians) ,and having the stereotypical American “college experience”, on a big leafy campus.
The kind of student for whom the process of choosing which university to attend involved making a family trip to visit the campus.
And-most importantly–the kind of student who expects that much of success in his education will come not just from the classroom,but also from socializing (and towards graduation,networking) with other students and professors.

The world has changed due to the virus, and the universities are trying to adapt,too. But I think that much is being lost unfortunately.

I have just participated in a family reunion using Zoom software, and it was NOT the same as previous years. Seeing 15 people split over 7 windows on the screen is awkward.Conversation did not flow naturally, body language and facial expressions were lost. We had to swipe across the screen to enlarge the face of who was speaking, and often missed the first few words as you tried to identify who was talking to whom. I can’t imagine using Zoom to do one of my old college discussion sections on Shakespeare.

For an 18 year old who wants the full university experience, it seems to me that waiting a year or two seems a better strategy, and hope things return to normal. Otherwise, you are beginning a process that may cost a hundred thousand dollars, but may not provide the benefits which makes the expense worthwhile.

12

That’s basically what I’ve been enlisted to do over the past month–in addition to my own work, so now doing two jobs, working double-time. It’s extremely difficult to train all those instructors remotely, so that they provide good instructional design online. It’s not just a simple matter of uploading materials. It requires completely rethinking how one can create an interactive process the elicits real engagement. For some, it requires actually coming to better understand the learning process, which they’ve been able to skirt around in their traditional classrooms. It’s particularly difficult to do with those instructors who had been avoiding any aspect of digital learning, especially since we’re all working at home. It’s easier to demonstrate the student experience to these instructors when you can be with them in person.

Every instructor in our system–which is the largest system of higher education in the nation, the CA Community Colleges–for several years has had the option to include some aspect of supplemental online access to their coursework, (with Canvas and free Zoom professional accounts). And before this all happened, they had extensive free training available to do so. About half were doing it to one degree or another, but some were avoiding it. Now they ALL have to do it, and those who had avoided it are paying for that. They’re the hardest ones to help at this time.

13

Yeah, taking a year off is a good idea. Maybe even for students currently in college as well. They should take a gap semester or gap year. The traditional college experience is totally degraded for many of the reasons you mention–no socializing, no sports, no late-night hanging out, no partying, etc. Forming friendships is going to be much more challenging. The educational experience is very different and likely much worse for many students. And all the difficulties are compounded by all the environmental issues going on. Trying to learn at home with all the stresses of dealing with societal changes, parents worried about finances, houses packed with people, existential crises, and so on are all going to make for a worse learning environment anyway.

14

The NY Times says universities are concerned.

15

Hope students taking a gap year aren’t expecting to find a job - not with 13% unemployment or more.
Yes, the campus experience is very important. And colleges have been trying to go on-line more for years, with only moderate success. But this isn’t a permanent situation - it would seem the best thing to do is to keep up on-line and be ready to go back to campus next year at the earliest opportunity. The students would be back with his or her classmates, not be a year behind.

16

My daughter is a professor. Teaching online is a pain, but working fairly well. Zoom has breakout rooms which are good for team projects. Attendance is as good as in-person attendance if not better. One of her classes involves work with local businesses which can’t happen any more, but aside from that it is not too bad.

Unexpected bonus - faculty meetings are shorter since those who spend a lot of time complaining seems to be more quiet. Plus she can do something else while it is going on.

17

Students taking a gap year would have to find an alternate plan for sure, even if that was just living with their parents.

As to whether or not to continue online, that will depend a lot on the child. My daughter is having a very tough time with the transition to online. She’s in tears a few times a week from the stress of it all. Fortunately she’s a graduating senior and only has to do it for another few weeks. Doing it another semester or two would likely be a very negative experience for her and she would likely just quit college altogether. But certainly not every child is the same and some kids will be just fine.

18

Hope this pandemic will finally force universities like Duke and Harvard to stop charging those rapacious $40,000 a year costs.

19

That’s a lot for online studies. People devalue anything online; in the sense that people don’t like paying (previous values) for music, movies, entertainment… and education. Expect to see pirated lectures from great universities?

In other news, students in Denmark are going back to school.

20

This raises an interesting question. Since universities won’t be able to charge for on-campus housing and meals, how will this impact their budgets? What kind of net profit do universities make on dormitories and dining halls?

As for the rest, if I still had college-age kids at home, I’d urge them to carefully consider which online classes would be most doable for them and take at least a few of those. My daughter loathed the one online class she took and refused to take another (though she had the choice, and today’s college students don’t); yet if the alternative is sitting around playing computer games in mom’s basement, what a wasted year that would be! I don’t think it does the brain much good to stagnate.