Will colleges open as normal? Classes. Dorms. Sports. Frats.
Will they just do online?
By September do you anticipate their be some sort of medical test (like a physical) a student would have to take to make sure they dont have it or possibly have antibodies against the virus?
I dont know. I’m putting this out because I know many Dopers work in colleges or have students at college and I’m guessing they are already making some plans.
As for my hs senior, right now we are probably going to have him go to a local community college even though we wanted him to go to an out of state school simply because if it doesnt work out, we wouldnt be in to already putting down deposits on apartments and such.
September is still a long ways away so even if this is under control the big fear is it will restart next winter.
I don’t see the lil’wrekkers University opening in the fall. She just got a summer class schedule. It’s 100% online. This is a state with BIG problems because of the virus. It may be different depending where you are.
She’s very disappointed. I’m happy she’ll be home and safe with me.
From what I’ve read, many colleges are making ACT/SAT scores optional and are extending deadlines. With parents getting laid off or unable to operate businesses, some students may be unable to attend at all. If your HS senior opts for a CC, he or she won’t be alone.
One thing that puzzles me is the long-term impact on college students. Colleges use the ACT/SAT scores as a predictor of which students will likely succeed. Will colleges lower their standards so more students pass their freshman courses despite less prep and low test scores, or will there be a higher dropout rate, or what?
And how will this affect applications for residencies? If med schools are done for the school year, that doesn’t seem to bode well.
The problem being that community colleges are struggling even more than universities with the switch to online learning. Many are seriously underfunded and simply lack the technology and knowhow to convert academic courses to online. Not to mention career and technical education – how do you teach welding or HVAC courses over the internet?
I’m a prof for a community college, although I actually teach at a boarding school nearby. My department, the Adult Basic Skills department, has never utilized much online curriculum or lessons, owing to the fact that our students often have significant barriers to sucessfully completing online learning.
We had a 2-year plan to put our program online. When the Covid-19 shit hit we had to move everything online just like everyone else. But since we had no extant online resources, class shells, exams, or anything else we had to build it… in 10 days. 10 days to do 2 years’ worth of work. And goddammit we did it. My class starts Monday so it remains to be seen how successful I have been.
The vocational training programs on campus – welding, auto repair, as well as nursing and dental assisting – have basically shut down until summer at the earliest. I know they’re pushing first year students to get pre-req and non-trade classes (writing, math, etc) done this term, then they’ll re-evaluate in June.
I honestly have no idea whats happening with the students who were on track to graduate from those programs this year.
One thing though, whenever the economy takes a shit college enrollment, especially community college enrollment, skyrockets. We saw a massive influx of students (I was one of them) when the Great Recession hit. If this downturn turns into another 2008-style recession (or worse), community colleges will really have to figure out an effective way to use their LMS and actually deliver a valuable and effective educational experience. Because the need will be there.
For is it is similar as what Lancia wrote, we had to addapt quickly, but we did it.
Our online classes follow the exact schedule we had before and so will our exams. At the end of the year we should be in a very similar position as we normally are. Also no real lowering of standards for grades will be allowed.
That is not to say the situation is ideal. I think everyone (students and staff) can’t wait to be back in school. But if it is needed we could start the academic year online.
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 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 choosing which university to attend involved making a family trip to visit the campus. 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.
The world has changed, and the “college experience” is changing too. For an 18 year old, it seems to me that waiting a year seems a better strategy, before beginning a process that will cost a hundred thousand dollars, but may not provide the benefits which makes the expense worthwhile.
Short version: colleges and universities are preparing for the likelihood of a fall semester (at least) that’s 100% distance learning, and they realize they’ve got to up their game considerably from whatever stopgap stuff they’re doing right now.
I know our younger son would be very unhappy if he couldn’t go back to campus in the fall. He’s already missing his girl friend and other friends. He takes the threat to everyone’s health seriously, though. I think another semester online would be devastating for the college financially, as it would for a lot of colleges and universities.
Well sure, they’re going to wait as long as possible to see how things go before officially making changes.
But anyone who thinks we will be able to abandon social distancing by September is smoking some damned good weed, that’s all I can say. And colleges just aren’t set up in a way that could let everyone back on campus while maintaining social distancing.
I feel for the CCs. As you say, underfunded and the students themselves are typically on a tight budget themselves - might not have easy access to online learning resources. Some also work and go to school, with work funding their studies. Without work, they can’t afford school.
It’s also very likely that funding higher ed won’t be the immediate priority of state and local governments, which are going to be financially stressed in ways they’ve never been in the modern era of government (post-1930).
Yeah, up their game indeed. Switching to online instruction midstream is far from the ideal. Online education can actually work fairly well, but instructors (and their institutions) have to prepare for it in advance and set up the infrastructure. Different online tools have their own individual quirks, and some individual users on the student side will need time to adapt as well.
It takes time, training, and experience for instructors to learn how to teach online, and much the same for students learning using online platforms. Even with the right tools, the tasks themselves have to be developed in such a way that they lead to the formation of a learning community. Easier said than done.
General social distancing wouldn’t be necessary if you knew who was and wasn’t contagious. Any chance we’ll have effective, widely-available testing by then that could be used to greatly reduce the risks?
This question hits home for me as I have one kid starting college in the fall and two who are currently in college. My daughter plans to go to a large state college a few hours away and live in a dorm. She was supposed to go up there for orientation and to sign up for classes. That’s all being handled online now. Will she live in the dorm and attend classes as scheduled? Who knows?
And my son is a sophomore with a double major of engineering and German. He got a great opportunity to study abroad at a major engineering university in Switzerland next fall. What will happen with that?
Question: How did your college handle times when when an infectious disease was going around and students needed to be isolated? I remember just the regular flu at The University of Kansas where dozens of students had it and had to be put into special living arrangements and have all their class materials sent to them.
Congratulations on getting all the material online. My wife is a high school teacher and has had to do much of the same.
Ms. P teaches the practical part of massage therapy training. The school is concentrating on the academic portion right now, but she did have me get on the table so she could demonstrate some things for her students. I’m a school librarian, so there are times all four of us are involved in distance learning. Our youngest is taking an acting class, and he warned us that he has a part to play that involves yelling. Our older son also does a weekly podcast, so there’s plenty of coordinating to do. We put our meetings, classes, ect. on the wall calendar.
The lil’wrekker was supposed to go to Japan with her program for 5 weeks this summer. It’s been cancelled. Her advisor is not sure if the University will pick it up next year or ever. She’s very disappointed.
The university where I teach has gone all-online for the remainder of the Spring semester. All undergraduate courses will be graded Pass/Fail, while graduate courses (which have been offered online for a long time) will remain letter graded.
We are assuming Summer courses will also be online, at least at first. But we are planning the Fall 2020 semester as if it will be a return to normalcy. Of course nobody knows if that will happen and we’re all prepared for it not to, but that is the official word so far.