Lots of schools have branded masks. It will be the new fashion statement ?
@NJSue Got it.
But Mt. Holyoke is an LAC so, to me, the seven week semester doesn’t make a lot of sense. For smaller classes, the profs didn’t have to make many changes at all. They just zoom lecture and keep the assignments the same. I understand now that, with larger classes, it is way harder to start in person and move that class to remote learning.
There is a dawning realization that the “college experience” is going to be dramatically different over the next 12 months than it has ever been. I think those students who really wanted the “academical village” or “groves of academe” experience are going to suffer the most, along with those students who are very invested in the tribal or social aspects of college (sports attendance, Greek life etc.).
I hated online teaching this semester. I would never choose it. But I have to learn to do it and to do it well. I’ve got to adapt, and so do the students.
At this point, my kid would be delighted to go to college, stay in her dorm, and zoom into most classes from there. As long as she could start her college life on campus and make friends.
I think probably the majority of students feel that way. Here’s hoping it’ll be possible.
A few colleges, like Colorado college and I think WPI do this all the time, except in even shorter blocks (3.5 weeks for one class). They have some exceptions for foreign languages.
Some like it, some don’t (and pick other schools)
I went to summer school and it was 1 or 2 courses (3-6 credits) over 4 weeks. It’s rough for a lit class when you are reading a book in 1-2 days but pretty good for some other classes when you can plow through a bunch of math problems one after another and learn it all in a shorter time.
The NFL, NCAA, and other licensing entities have approved masks with logos and mascots. They are available online and through the university bookstores. 3/$25.
@twoinanddone Right. We knew about Colorado College. The location would have been perfect but not the one class at a time thing!
I feel like kids would have to choose classes very wisely if they will be on that tight schedule. Maybe one class with problem sets and one with a lot of reading and papers. Two of the same type of class seems like it would make for a harder semester.
@homerdog I believe the theory is something like this: if you are taking 4 courses with a total enrollment of 60-80 students across those courses, you will have regular contact with all of those folks. If you take two at a time, you are in regular contact with 30-40 people. You also will spend less time walking from one class to the next with 2 classes instead of 4, further decreasing the number of people you come into contact with on a regular basis.
Of course, we have learned that length of exposure, especially in indoor spaces, is also problematic with respect to disease spread.
As mentioned by @twoinanddone Colorado College and a very few others offer block plan - one intense course at a time for 3.5-4 weeks, followed by a long weekend, and then another class. Depending on the subject matter, there are upsides and downsides. They aren’t hurting for applicants, so it must work for some.
My kiddo signed up for 2 online summer courses at Cal. She just added another one after she was told she could only work 20 hours/week in the summer (She was going to work full time). All 3 classes are pretty intense. I always complain about her workload but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
D18 took similar compacted summer classes last year. It seemed to work fine. She did 3 full semester classes in 7 weeks (ie overloading). Each had a 3 hour combined lecture and discussion twice a week, all in small class groups of <30 people. She quite enjoyed it, despite the length of the lectures, and still had time for a few weekend trips. It is not an uncommon style for her university, they have a few seminar style honors courses which are one 3 hour class per week during the regular semesters. But I think that shorter classes four or five days a week wouldn’t be as pleasant as it would be harder to fit in the reading and assignments.
@homerdog I don’t think they will ship students home again; they may pivot temporarily to online learning if gatherings of more than 10 people or so are prohibited, but they wouldn’t kick everyone out of on-campus housing again. The government can tell them to stop having classes and cease all non-essential operations, but they can’t force the schools to kick everyone out of housing; even now, there are almost 200 people living on-campus at Amherst. They are going to develop a contingency plan for keeping everyone on-campus, because when they did it this past semester, it was a freaking mess.
The only problems I see with the block scheduling are:
- the intense 7/8-week courses don’t work well for students who can’t keep on top of the work every day: the disorganized, the procrastinators, those with mental illnesses, neurological disorders, and other disabilities that take up a lot of time/energy, etc. You fall behind and you’re not likely to catch up; it’s an unforgiving pace.
- The other people who routinely get smooshed by these courses are those who get sick or are responsible for other people who get sick, and it can happen too late in the course to withdraw easily. And we’re having a pandemic. Planning these courses without planning for people to get sick early in week 6 seems to me a mistake.
I don’t know what fin aid ramifications there might be to dropping these courses, either.
As for having kids on campus to socialize, @suzyQ7 — it’s not like the universities don’t want to. Desperately, in many cases. Don’t forget, lots of those dorms aren’t paid for yet. Built with borrowed money. We’ve got payments coming due. However, the combination of chaos, liability, and reputational loss from getting it wrong when we don’t know how “wrong” happens yet…I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of schools keeping students off-campus for fall with hopes of re-opening in spring.
I agree - whatever the model, starting courses online would be much different than transitioning to online. S19 is certain that the reason the spring semester went well when they were sent home in March is because he already had relationships with the profs. It really helped S when there was a problem with a final - the prof had already seen his work ethic, attentiveness, and ability in person.
I love what Beloit and Mount Holyoke are doing. I also love what Colorado College does (and does quite successfully) - one class at a time for three and a half weeks, with a four day break between each class (or “block”), as CC calls them.
It’s a shortened amount of time, but a student is concentrating on only one course (CC) or two courses and not four/five.
D21 had four summers of CTY where each time she took a course in just under three weeks. The courses were equivalent to one semester college courses. She (and the many other kids) did very well with that format, and her courses over the years included science courses with labs. Total immersion in one subject and only one subject. She loved it (and Colorado College is on her college application list). D23 is thinking about Davidson’s THINK program next summer, and that is two college courses for credit in three weeks.
Most (?) colleges have summer semesters where students can take courses in seven or eight weeks.
It’s a good call IMO.
I am going to Beloit today. They graduate on Sunday but we are doing a family picnic with my daughter since she will be with her friends for the virtual graduation on Sunday. I will try to find out more information but don’t think they know at this point. We had our families and tons of her friends do short videos congratulating her on her graduation. That will be fun to play for her. Then move her out the next week on memorial day or around.
My D17 has experience with summer classes. She took two for summer session I last summer, then I think 1-2 more Summer II (she picked up a double major and a minor so is cramming a lot of courses in). Her first summer session was very hard. I think she had two similar humanities classes, and it was a LOT of paper writing and reading. She met us for a weekend on our family vacation and spent most of the time on the patio, doing schoolwork. That was by far her hardest academic period, her first summer with two classes.
She’s taking summer courses again and due to them being online, and learning from the past, has chosen a easy health core requirement, and then one that will require more reading and writing. I think she has also tried to balance it out for Summer II. As an incoming senior she was trying to save some easy classes for senior year when she might have an internship, but now she’s shifting another easier class to Summer II since a fall internship won’t happen. She learned the hard way last summer that the condensed classes are not a breeze. (She’s an excellent, organized, A student).
My S19’s college (Elon, NC) hasn’t put out many specifics about fall, but one is that all classes will be 100% available online, regardless of what plans are made to be on campus in the fall or not. They are also setting aside areas for students that need to be isolated, which seems to be common.
Well, I for one think that a compressed schedule would be very difficult for many students.
I agree with this, but I’m not sure how many students will realize it ahead of time.
Also, will be hard for athletes…and although many schools might not have athletics come fall, someone mentioned East Carolina above as going to the Beloit model and I would lean toward East Carolina having sports.
I’m trying to understand how going to compressed schedules and or switching from two semesters to three would work on a practical basis if you’ve already got students registered for classes. Are these schools that haven’t had registration yet? Or are they cancelling everyone’s class registrations and then making them redo it based on the new structures. That would be a mess, especially at large schools.