Preparing for Coronavirus?

[Caracal]

I'm trying to raise alarm bells on my campus. We have had interruptions before due to storms and loss of electricity, heat, etc. While administrators are generally on board with the idea of disaster preparedness, a lot of faculty are not. They don't want to bother disturbing their routines by making their teaching more resilient.

I'm not sure what you mean by more resilient teaching. I teach face to face. My classes are designed around us having 2.5 class hours every week. I don't relish the idea of having to move everything online. I don't want to record lectures. When my lectures go well, it is because students engage and I'm sure me staring into a screen and talking isn't going to be real great. I don't really feel like spending a lot of time right now prepping for classes becoming completely different. If it happens, I already use the CMS extensively, so I'm sure I can figure out how to manage lectures and discussions and all the other stuff.

Will it be sort of a mess as the students and I figure out how to do all of this on the fly? I'm sure it will be, but since this would all be taking place within the context of a dangerous epidemic infection that will disrupt everyday life, this seems manageable. My class isn't providing power to the region. It isn't like I need to have some online version all ready to go at the moment of disruption. 

[Parasaurolophus]

It looks to me like panic about the virus is still the biggest threat. And it makes sense to stock up a bit in response; if even just 10%-30% of the population stayed home for a few days (out of fear or illness), the upheaval would be pretty massive.

Nothing special going on in our household, though. We're in an earthquake zone, so our existing emergency-preparedness seems perfectly adequate.

[marshwiggle]

I'm trying to raise alarm bells on my campus. We have had interruptions before due to storms and loss of electricity, heat, etc. While administrators are generally on board with the idea of disaster preparedness, a lot of faculty are not. They don't want to bother disturbing their routines by making their teaching more resilient.

I'm not sure what you mean by more resilient teaching. I teach face to face. My classes are designed around us having 2.5 class hours every week. I don't relish the idea of having to move everything online. I don't want to record lectures. When my lectures go well, it is because students engage and I'm sure me staring into a screen and talking isn't going to be real great. I don't really feel like spending a lot of time right now prepping for classes becoming completely different.

My courses have a big lab and project component. Those don't really lend themselves to online.

[Hegemony]

If you move to online, don't record yourself talking for X number of hours. It is deadly and students simply will not watch it. I've taught online for a while and know the ropes. Did you know the average YouTube video is watched for under 4 minutes? The same will be true for a recorded lecture. If you have to replace an in-person lecture, do it with a variety of media: a short written-out piece with pictures and diagrams, a Power-Point, an amusing and/or helpful clip from YouTube (already made by somebody else), etc. Divide the information up and put the different parts in different formats, as appropriate.

[spork]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/03/cdc-tells-colleges-consider-canceling-foreign-exchange-programs-because-coronavirus

[spork]

My employer is recalling all students doing study abroad in Italy, Greece, etc. Spring break study abroad trips are all cancelled.

[Caracal]

If you move to online, don't record yourself talking for X number of hours. It is deadly and students simply will not watch it. I've taught online for a while and know the ropes. Did you know the average YouTube video is watched for under 4 minutes? The same will be true for a recorded lecture. If you have to replace an in-person lecture, do it with a variety of media: a short written-out piece with pictures and diagrams, a Power-Point, an amusing and/or helpful clip from YouTube (already made by somebody else), etc. Divide the information up and put the different parts in different formats, as appropriate.

Not there yet, but if we start seeing lots of schools moving classes online, perhaps we can set something up where those of us who haven't done any online teaching can ask questions.

[clean]

The Walmart Report:

I needed to shop at Walmart today.  I am out of some cleaning supplies so I ventured to the cleaning isle. It was pretty well cleared out! There were sporadic items, but for the shelves devoted to disinfecting , most of the shelf space was empty of product!

have you been to YOUR Walmart lately?  What is the situation there?

[pigou]

have you been to YOUR Walmart lately?  What is the situation there?

No Walmart nearby, but the Whole Foods and CVS that I went to today were both fully stocked. Amazon also has cleaning supplies in stock, so if you can wait two days, that seems like it would be a good option?

[clean]

Oh ,I forgot to add about the Chunky Soup!

Hit pretty hard!  Lots of shelf space showing.  Not just at Walmart, but I was at my local grocery store and there was a lot of shelf space showing there too!

Im not much of a soup fan, so I was just looking to see if there was anything worth sampling.  None of what was on the shelf was anything that peaked my taste buds!

What is the Chunky Situation in year area?

[Parasaurolophus]

To the extent that shelves are bare here, I'm pretty sure it's primarily due to the rail blockades.

[ciao_yall]

We think that our Coronavirus closure will coincide with the week before Spring Break to give everyone two weeks off.

[spork]

An acquaintance in the public health field in the USA says France is testing 10,000 people per day for Covid-19. Here we've tested a total of about 500 people.

[FishProf]

We canceled a spring break trip to the Domincan Republic where our students would be in the remotest corner far fropm any population centers, in a country with 1 case (an Italian who was napped at the airport upon arrival) in the opposite end of the island in the tourist trap area.

But our spring break trip to Florida, which has declared a state of emergency over the pandemic, is still on.

Yea for logic and reason!

[spork]

We canceled a spring break trip to the Domincan Republic where our students would be in the remotest corner far fropm any population centers, in a country with 1 case (an Italian who was napped at the airport upon arrival) in the opposite end of the island in the tourist trap area.

But our spring break trip to Florida, which has declared a state of emergency over the pandemic, is still on.

Yea for logic and reason!

It's common knowledge that any foreign country is a poverty-stricken, disease-filled shit hole, whereas USA #1!