Cancelled classes due to coronavirus

[saffie]

We're moving mostly online for the rest of the semester, according to breaking news reports of the NY governor's announcement for SUNY/CUNY systems. There appears to be an exception for lab-based classes. No details yet from my particular campus.

I don't teach a seminar, but do have student group presentations planned. We use Blackboard and I think the Collaborate tool should work for those - screen sharing, whiteboard and chat feature for questions. But this also depends on what kind of internet access students have outside of school if our computer labs are closed.

[Caracal]

The governor of Ohio and the Ohio Department of Health declared a state of emergency for the state and encouraged universities move to online instruction. All 14 public universities are "aligning" with this recommendation and taking action.

For perspective from the Ohio Department of Health, as of today:

Confirmed Cases
in Ohio: 3
   
Persons Under Investigation
(PUIs) in Ohio: 15
   
Negative PUIs
in Ohio: 14

Cumulative Number of Individuals Under
Public Health Supervision: 255


(Cumulative number of travelers referred to the Ohio Department of Health for monitoring; includes travelers who have completed their self-monitoring period.  These individuals are not exhibiting symptoms of illness.  Sources include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine and travelers who have voluntarily contacted local health departments upon arrival in Ohio.)

Ohio population: 11.7 million in 2018

and in 209, there were 597 murders in Ohio. Source: These Are The 10 Murder Capitals Of Ohio For 2019

I really find this kind of thing pretty annoying and irresponsible right now. None of this is easy and we obviously have to try to balance risks and costs. However, someone just tested positive in Ohio and it appears to be community spread. That means that there are not just four cases but likely a lot more. The time to try to take steps that will slow down spread is now, not when you have hundreds of cases in the state. Over 800 people have died in Italy in the last two weeks. Sure, most of us aren't at really high risk, but some people are. I have friends who are immunocompromised. I'm worried about my parents and other older relatives. Social distancing is important and necessary right now.

[eigen]

The governor of Ohio and the Ohio Department of Health declared a state of emergency for the state and encouraged universities move to online instruction. All 14 public universities are "aligning" with this recommendation and taking action.

For perspective from the Ohio Department of Health, as of today:

Confirmed Cases
in Ohio: 3
   
Persons Under Investigation
(PUIs) in Ohio: 15
   
Negative PUIs
in Ohio: 14

Cumulative Number of Individuals Under
Public Health Supervision: 255


(Cumulative number of travelers referred to the Ohio Department of Health for monitoring; includes travelers who have completed their self-monitoring period.  These individuals are not exhibiting symptoms of illness.  Sources include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine and travelers who have voluntarily contacted local health departments upon arrival in Ohio.)

Ohio population: 11.7 million in 2018

and in 209, there were 597 murders in Ohio. Source: These Are The 10 Murder Capitals Of Ohio For 2019

For something that spreads at an exponential rate, looking at current numbers as compared to full year statistics is.... disingenuous to say the least, and completely ignoring all scientific evidence and current understanding of disease epidemiology.

The number of cases is far less important than whether those cases are clustered or spread, which indicates the degree of community presence of the disease. And I'm sure as someone with a STEM background you understand that exponential spread means that small numbers grow quite rapidly.

[Cheerful]

I'm not sure if I should start a new thread, or it's OK to ask here, but my University will go online starting next week.
One of the classes I am teaching is discussion/seminar style. The primary problem I foresee is that I am hard-of-hearing (CI user), and while my hearing is good enough for face-to-face classes (sometimes I request repetition), I can't hear well over most video software.
For my lecture-based courses, I can use a chat feature and read the questions that students send my way, but I'm not sure what to do about a seminar. Any thoughts?

Does your campus use Blackboard?
You can use the groups feature of Blackboard for small-groups, typed discussions.  I haven't used it but others here may have tips.
Depending on class size, it's easy to use the Blackboard message board feature for whole-class discussions.  Pose questions/options for students to address and require that students reply to one or more posts.  Given them a deadline by which to enter their posts.
I'm sure other Learning Management Systems have similar features.

[HigherEd7]

It just takes a few schools to blew the whistle and the others will follow. No president or chancellor wants to get the blame for not closing down and students and faculty end up with the virus.

[polly_mer]

My young relatives are quite excited because their institutions are going online for the rest of the term.  Somehow, that is translating into their minds as a two-month spring break.  The FaceBook posts being read to us were exhorting students to just go back to their already-rented apartments in the university towns and have a big party until summer jobs begin.

One of the young relatives was looking up cheap plane tickets to various places in Europe as the announcement of all travel to Europe being suspended was made.  The young relatives seriously debated how hard just flying into London and then going wherever they want would really be since that's what they did last summer as part of a planned European study abroad program.  As a back-up plan, the young relatives are making road trip plans to visit their friends in better cities once they return to their home on the east coast.  Only the continuing stream of friends announcing they are returning back to home city instead of staying at their colleges is slowing down that plan.

I sigh heavily as Mr. Mer and I were figuring out logistics of hosting these relatives for several weeks if they can't fly home on Friday as planned.  Discussion with older relatives was how our scientific work on externally imposed fall deadlines would be affected if our employers shift to work-from-home when much of our work cannot be done off-site. 

The father of the young relatives keeps sighing about how his kids don't know how privileged they are.  Observing them refuse to believe that something serious is happening that warrants a change in behavior is quite interesting.

[marshwiggle]

For perspective from the Ohio Department of Health, as of today:

Confirmed Cases
in Ohio: 3
   
Persons Under Investigation
(PUIs) in Ohio: 15
   
Negative PUIs
in Ohio: 14

Cumulative Number of Individuals Under
Public Health Supervision: 255


(Cumulative number of travelers referred to the Ohio Department of Health for monitoring; includes travelers who have completed their self-monitoring period.  These individuals are not exhibiting symptoms of illness.  Sources include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine and travelers who have voluntarily contacted local health departments upon arrival in Ohio.)

Ohio population: 11.7 million in 2018

And in 2019, there were 597 murders in Ohio. Source: These Are The 10 Murder Capitals Of Ohio For 2019

For something that spreads at an exponential rate, looking at current numbers as compared to full year statistics is.... disingenuous to say the least, and completely ignoring all scientific evidence and current understanding of disease epidemiology.

The number of cases is far less important than whether those cases are clustered or spread, which indicates the degree of community presence of the disease. And I'm sure as someone with a STEM background you understand that exponential spread means that small numbers grow quite rapidly.

I understand exponential growth, but my point is (and has always been) that unsustainable "solutions" are not really solutions.
A state of emergency is appropriate for things such as:

• Natural disaster; storm, earthquake, volcano, etc. where the event happens over a period of days at most, and while the entire cleanup may take weeks or months, the  emergency response will be over in days or weeks at most.
• Riot, civil unrest, terrorist attack, etc. where again the event happens over a period of days at most, and while the entire cleanup may take weeks or months, the  emergency response will be over in days or weeks at most.

In addition, in this type of situation the emergency response can be largely met by ramping up existing infrastructure (medical, construction, military and civilian) in order to restore normal functioning for most of the community quickly.

In cases like Covid-19, in areas that are not in the midst of a local outbreak, a state of emergency is misleading because

• Most of what is required is relatively low key community wide vigilance and caution, rather than large-scale infrastructure change.
• Since the length of time is likely to be weeks at least, and more likely months, the imposed conditions must allow most normal function of the community. (Any estimates I've heard suggest a vaccine is likely at least a year or 18 months away.)
  

Areas without outbreaks need to respond to the threat, however, the response needs to take into account the specifics of each community so that it is appropriate and most beneficial, rather than simply dramatic so that governments can be perceived to be "taking action".

[spork]

Brown University is going remote. Classes cancelled for transition to online instruction, to start March 30. All students out of the dorms as of March 22.

[Caracal]

I understand exponential growth, but my point is (and has always been) that unsustainable "solutions" are not really solutions.
A state of emergency is appropriate for things such as:

• Natural disaster; storm, earthquake, volcano, etc. where the event happens over a period of days at most, and while the entire cleanup may take weeks or months, the  emergency response will be over in days or weeks at most.
• Riot, civil unrest, terrorist attack, etc. where again the event happens over a period of days at most, and while the entire cleanup may take weeks or months, the  emergency response will be over in days or weeks at most.

In addition, in this type of situation the emergency response can be largely met by ramping up existing infrastructure (medical, construction, military and civilian) in order to restore normal functioning for most of the community quickly.

In cases like Covid-19, in areas that are not in the midst of a local outbreak, a state of emergency is misleading because

• Most of what is required is relatively low key community wide vigilance and caution, rather than large-scale infrastructure change.
• Since the length of time is likely to be weeks at least, and more likely months, the imposed conditions must allow most normal function of the community. (Any estimates I've heard suggest a vaccine is likely at least a year or 18 months away.)
  

Areas without outbreaks need to respond to the threat, however, the response needs to take into account the specifics of each community so that it is appropriate and most beneficial, rather than simply dramatic so that governments can be perceived to be "taking action".

1. Things are going to get worse with this. I'd like to think that isn't true, but the people who know what they are talking about are alarmed.
2. You can mitigate that by avoiding having large groups of people in close contact. Classes, dorms, dining halls. These are all places where something could spread really rapidly.
3. The uncertainty and the lack of knowledge about how this is all going to go combined with the pretty bad predictions from the people who know what they are talking about means that taking more extreme steps is necessary right now.
4. You're right that this is different from a hurricane in that it isn't a discrete event. And you're also right that extreme measures can't last indefinitely. However, by the fall we are going to know a whole lot more about the virus. We will have a clearer sense of exactly how bad it is, exactly which people are most at risk and a million other things. Perhaps, we will have found ways to contain it, as China and Korea seem to have had some success in doing.
5. The point is that hopefully by then it will be possible to manage things in a more focused way. But right now it just isn't possible. The goal is to flatten the epidemic curve as that graph going around shows and keep hospitals from getting totally overwhelmed which will cause more people to die.

[Ruralguy]

Caracal,

The reaction will get worse, it always does. However, though the number of US cases has been dramatically increasing, probably due in part to iincreased testing, the number of deaths has been only increasing by a couple of people per week, mostly part of that initial Washington outbreak.

If it's any consolation, Disney World is crazy busy.

[Caracal]

Caracal,

The reaction will get worse, it always does. However, though the number of US cases has been dramatically increasing, probably due in part to iincreased testing, the number of deaths has been only increasing by a couple of people per week, mostly part of that initial Washington outbreak.

Two weeks ago nobody had died, a week ago 12 people had died, now it is 38. Washington seems to be where it has been spreading the longest and it has had a chance to get into vulnerable populations. The same thing is going to start happening elsewhere. Two weeks ago, Italy had 29 deaths. Today it is over 800. Look, most of us are going to be fine, but claiming that this is no big deal is just bizarre.

[clean]

those 'extended spring breakers' wont be going on Princess Cruise lines

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/carnival-suspends-operation-of-princess-cruises-for-2-months-over-coronavirus/2204376/

Princess has suspended cruises for 2 months.  Viking River Cruises has also suspended cruises.
Travel to Italy wont 'go anywhere'.  No need to travel to see the Final Four this year! 

Students thinking that going online is going to be one huge party, are going to be disappointed.

With food service on campus stopped, and dorms emptied, it will be hard to party on.

For the rest of us, it is early, I suppose, but has anyone's campus officially cancelled graduation yet?

[Wahoo Redux]

Marshy, just stop talking.

[EdnaMode]

We're on spring break this week, but starting Monday will going completely online for the next month, perhaps longer. I'm worried about labs, about what my students will be missing as far as instruction and meeting course outcomes, and am curious how some of my colleagues (who still use old, yellowed, overhead sheets and never log in to the CMS) will cope. I can understand why it's being done, but at my institution, is has not been handled well. The notices have been a cross between rah rah rah we're all in this together, we can do it! and you MUST put everything online and bend over backward, accept all late work without penalty, and reinvent the wheel at the same time. I'm not sure our infrastructure can handle it. I'm in the process of setting up our CMS for video lectures and trying to plan for labs. In the message I'm composing to send out to my students I'm telling them that remote classes do not equal extended spring break. We'll see how it goes.

[marshwiggle]

Caracal,

The reaction will get worse, it always does. However, though the number of US cases has been dramatically increasing, probably due in part to iincreased testing, the number of deaths has been only increasing by a couple of people per week, mostly part of that initial Washington outbreak.

Two weeks ago nobody had died, a week ago 12 people had died, now it is 38. Washington seems to be where it has been spreading the longest and it has had a chance to get into vulnerable populations. The same thing is going to start happening elsewhere. Two weeks ago, Italy had 29 deaths. Today it is over 800. Look, most of us are going to be fine, but claiming that this is no big deal is just bizarre.

The frustrating thing culturally is that there are only two "settings"; "CRISIS!!!" or, as you say "no big deal". There is ONE more virus people can be exposed to than a coupe of months ago; it is ONE more threat to people in vulnerable populations. People have been lulled into a sense that institutions (government, employers, etc.) are responsible for keeping us safe. The reality is that for most of the dangers out there, our own behaviour is a far bigger factor in our risk.

It's like talking about the risks of HIV and Hep C. Intravenous drug use and unprotected sex are risk factors. OF COURSE THEY ARE; THEY WOULD BE RISKY IF NEITHER OF THOSE DISEASES EXISTED!!!!

Hand washing didn't become some important thing in the last few weeks; it's just that now people have a specific idea of what it helps prevent.

The point is that people who exercise appropriate levels of mindfulness and caution already have a very slightly elevated risk now, while those who give much less thought to those kinds of things already expect someone else to protect them, rather than realizing that they are in more danger than they probably realize normally and becoming more wise about these things in general would be a great benefit.

TL;DR - "no big deal" is rarely an accurate description of the risks encountered in everyday life. But "crisis" is not the only alternative.