Yes. My college has already stated that classes need to be accessible to students that cannot attend in person, or students that cannot attend synchronous classes. But, that does not mean I cannot hold any synchronous classes. It simply means my course material must be accessible to all students. I can decided how that happens.
I certainly hope parents and students trust the professors at their institution know how to teach. Isn’t that why you’re paying that shockingly large (to put it mildly) tuition bill? And if you have any doubts, withdraw from the college and find one that works for you. You own the power here. No one is forcing you to pay tuition.
And again, I have a D20 attending college in the fall. I’m comfortable paying the large tuition bill because I researched the school in advance. I’m confident the professors know what they’re doing.
My daughter’s school normally starts after Labor Day and has exams the third week of December. They announced fairly early, before most other schools made decisions, that they were moving up the start of classes three weeks early (starting 8/17). Their finals will end the Friday before Thanksgiving and then they are done. No online classes after Thanksgiving from home, no online finals in December. It’s a bit of a relief that she can travel home earlier since she has to fly.
My son’s school, however, is doing what most are…on campus classes end Tues (they always have Wed-Fri off) of Thanksgiving week, kids head home for good and finish classes and take finals online in December. Fortunately, it’s easier for us to get him home, no flying involved.
I would just like to point out that with regards to Wellesley only bringing back half their student body, that sort of supports my theory about it largely being a Boston/Cambridge problem.
I will say, if the issue is community, local housing availability, and access to medical resources, then Amherst is very well-poised to reopen.
For one thing, although they have not made their official fall announcement yet, UMass has made it pretty clear they will be bringing most students back to campus in some shape or form, even though many classes will be online. Since UMass has over 28,000 students, bringing back Amherst College people will just be a drop in the bucket for the local community compared to UMass.
With regard to local housing availability, there are plenty of off-campus apartments and hotels due to the presence of UMass, so I’m sure Amherst would have no trouble finding additional nearby housing.
Although our location is rural, we have access to a hospital in Northampton and we are not that far-off from Springfield. So, we are in pretty good shape there.
Good that there are some school wide standards that you and your fellow teachers follow. But to be effective there needs to be many more. For instance:
Will attendance at synchronous class be mandatory?
How will security of synchronous classes be maintained?
Will class streams be encrypted?
Will the inability to attend a synchronous class put some students at a disadvantage?
Will all class notes and presentation material be posted and easily accessed?
How will classes be recorded and distributed?
Will students be required to download every app that the various teachers use?
Without school wide standards there will as many answers to these question as there are profs.
I’ve seen distance learning done right. Having individual profs making the decisions on delivery (not content) is problematic, especially with schools that are just learning how to work in this environment.
Even I have to admit, expecting students in off-campus houses to follow these rules is magical thinking. That being said, I do like the rest of Tufts’s plan.
@socaldad2002 I know, it’s just that there are a disproportionate amount of schools in Boston or nearby areas that are either staying online or only bringing some students back (Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, UMass Boston, Simmons, etc.), and not just wealthy private colleges.
Many of these questions I can answer. Some of this has been worked out by the college, but that’s not what you initially listed:
“How will large classes be handled, how about the smaller ones? Office hours? Discussion groups? How will papers be marked and feedback returned to students? Which classes will be synchronous, and why? Will all classes be recorded and available for later viewing?”
That’s also my impression. The question I’ve always had about Williams is whether they will sequester all the kids who test positive in one place or let them stay in situ? Wesleyan (not to be confused with Wellesley, @TheVulcan) has the same configuration in many of its traditional dorms - long hallways with many single rooms - but, with one bathroom for anywhere from ten to twenty people. That was the concern raised among some of the alumni. Maybe, people who share the same bathroom should be considered a “family”?
But the key point is are the answers you give just for you and your class? Or is it a standard that will be followed by all. One of the biggest problems that schools will encounter as they (hopefully) improve their online capabilities is a lack of technical knowledge (of the profs, lecturers, etc) on how to pull it off. Left up to the profs, I’m sure some will want use FAX to turn in work
@wisteria100 No, they’re saying only two graduating classes will be eligible to live in on-campus housing and they will probably all be in singles, but the rest can still probably come, they’ll just have to get off-campus housing. They are still waiting on the final decision though. And even if they were only bringing two classes of undergraduates back, that would still be 17,000 UMass students (due to grad students), which would still allow for Amherst College’s return to be a drop in the bucket.
Plan accomplishes two goals - health and safety of students and faculty and community and will give students very strong academics for fall
They already have faculty learning about remote learning. They specifically called out that classes will be longer so there can be part that is synchronous and then parts that don’t have to be. They also gave examples of how labs could work with them sending experiments to kids in advance. Maybe GO pros to watch the kids do experiments.
The testing and housing and dining system is set up to test how it works. Work out the kinks for when they can have sophs and juniors and seniors back in the spring.
They decided on all online instead of hybrid so professors could really focus on how to do that best. Just too hard to plan in person and hybrid and online
Said they could not keep students from from going into town. Schools asking that aren’t being realistic. They will ask a students to please wear masks when in town and behave according to any Maine Covid rules.
People tried to nail down the deferral issue and find out why kids might not need to come back. Their answers and the accompanying math didn’t make sense. I’m going to call.
In the end he just said this decision is best for Bowdoin. Wouldn’t get looped into talking about other NESCACs. Did say Harvard and MIT seem to be doing something similar.
This thread has been illuminating to me. There are a whole lot of misconceptions regarding college faculty, from very intelligent seeming parents. I’m really surprised.
Regarding FAX, a 93 yr old Emeritus Professor I know taught himself how to do zoom and has been volunteer team teaching a seminar at a college about 20 online hours a week just to help out in the pandemic. One of those recognized world authorities. Available for as much email, zoom, or whatever one-on-one discussion as participants desire outside class hours.
Lucky students, imho
Some are standards for the college, others (like grading, discussion groups, and office hours) are individual.
IT has been holding workshops and individual training sessions since the spring. They are doing even more now. All professors are participating. I can tell you at my college, the profs are putting in a lot of work.
Again, give us some credit. As I said in an earlier post, we are not just sitting on our decks drinking lemonade. If people have such little faith in the professors at their student’s college, they should transfer.
