What would be a reasonable approach to classroom teaching in the fall?

[downer]

It seems pretty clear that for most of us, the bulk of our teaching will really be online, in a CMS.

But it is also clear that many schools, for legal or financial reasons, also need to say that they offering a classroom experience in the fall.

I am definitely NOT walking into a full classroom until I know that the students will not infect me.

I can imagine doing tutorials or discussion with a reduced number of students some distance from me in a well ventilated classroom. (Given the number of classrooms where it is impossible to open windows, or there not any windows, that's an issue.) I'd be comfortable with maybe 10 students in a medium sized classroom or 25 students in a lecture hall. I might require them to wear masks. I would it to be reasonably short too. Maybe 45 mins.

What is your bottom line for entering a classroom this fall? What would make you refuse to be in the room?

[Ruralguy]

I'm not personally teaching this semester because I will be on sabbatical, but my school is trying to do precisely what you mention. The college officially doesn't want to take a stand, but individual instructors with support from individual administrators are working on what you mention, plus perhaps rotating students between an online experience and a classroom experience.That is, one week, some students work on an online exercise related to a lab exercise in class lab while others are  starting with the in class experience. Then they rotate.

Instructors in high risk groups will be taking even stricter measures, such as demanding masks, or doing more online work.

As far as people taking a stand, so far, I've only heard about this from a couple of high risk people, but I have the gut feeling that some of our more woke junior faculty will be more demanding than we anticipate.

[marshwiggle]

I'm not personally teaching this semester because I will be on sabbatical, but my school is trying to do precisely what you mention. The college officially doesn't want to take a stand, but individual instructors with support from individual administrators are working on what you mention, plus perhaps rotating students between an online experience and a classroom experience.That is, one week, some students work on an online exercise related to a lab exercise in class lab while others are  starting with the in class experience. Then they rotate.

This is kind of like a "safer" version of Russian roulette. There are 2 guns, instead of 1, and the second one is a toy. So half the time you're using the toy gun.

[polly_mer]

I'm not personally teaching this semester because I will be on sabbatical, but my school is trying to do precisely what you mention. The college officially doesn't want to take a stand, but individual instructors with support from individual administrators are working on what you mention, plus perhaps rotating students between an online experience and a classroom experience.That is, one week, some students work on an online exercise related to a lab exercise in class lab while others are  starting with the in class experience. Then they rotate.

This is kind of like a "safer" version of Russian roulette. There are 2 guns, instead of 1, and the second one is a toy. So half the time you're using the toy gun.

It might be a less safe version of Russian roulette (one gun with more bullets) if some of the disease models are correct.  A larger number of individuals who have unknown contact habits is probably less safe than a small number of people who have agreed to exist in essentially the same bubble.

[the_geneticist]

I'm not personally teaching this semester because I will be on sabbatical, but my school is trying to do precisely what you mention. The college officially doesn't want to take a stand, but individual instructors with support from individual administrators are working on what you mention, plus perhaps rotating students between an online experience and a classroom experience.That is, one week, some students work on an online exercise related to a lab exercise in class lab while others are  starting with the in class experience. Then they rotate.

Instructors in high risk groups will be taking even stricter measures, such as demanding masks, or doing more online work.

As far as people taking a stand, so far, I've only heard about this from a couple of high risk people, but I have the gut feeling that some of our more woke junior faculty will be more demanding than we anticipate.

The rotating of students sounds like a logistics nightmare.  What is the plan for students who do NOT want to come in person?  Or students who get sick and can't come?
We've been told that we can't require students to attend in person.  Also, that if we teach in person, we have to offer a "remote option" for all students.  And that no instructor can be made to teach in person.  So, we'll be online for all big classes and all intro level labs.

[Ruralguy]

No, no. The rotating of students is to all be done *on campus*, and would be mandatory (from point of view of the instructor). Its just that the individual class might have an online component.  I don't personally find this to be the ideal solution, but I don't think its less safe, so long as they are all on campus anyway.

[downer]

Would any dean seriously say to a student who said that they felt unsafe that they have to be on campus? Of course not.

There is no way to make the classroom component mandatory. That's why it seems obvious that courses will be largely online, and classroom elements will have to be optional.

Maybe there are some classes which intrinsically require being in a school setting demonstrating physical skills. Maybe some labs or arts. Maybe if you are in dental school. Then there will need to be some arrangements made. But for the majority of college classes, that won't apply.

[Ruralguy]

I hope this doesn't sound snippy, but you, OP,  were the one who brought up the on campus issues, so I was addressing what my campus would do with students *on campus*. Once they are, as a group, off campus, then its back to what we were all just doing.

But yes, if any one individual wished to remain enrolled, but won't come back to a class room situation, then, lets just say, we would like to remain flexible ( we are tuition driven). We absolutely don't want them coming back to a classroom if they are symptomatic of anything or test positive for COVID (or really anything much else). For those cases, we will ask that all instructors create alternate online modules for students under quarantine.

[downer]

It may vary from class to class, but as I said before, I expect that the bulk of teaching will be online and what happens in the classroom will be largely window dressing. Maybe some small upper level courses and graduate seminars can still be conducted largely in classrooms, but not bigger classes.

But anyway, that's not what I was interested in. I am interested in what conditions facutly will have for setting foot in classrooms in the fall. 

[polly_mer]

IHE has articles on this every week recently that have rousing discussions in the comments.  You might want to read https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/04/plans-fall-assume-professors-will-be-willing-teach-will-they and the discussion.

Other aspects to consider are in today's article https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/21/universities-determine-how-enforce-social-distancing

[downer]

IHE has articles on this every week recently that have rousing discussions in the comments.  You might want to read https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/04/plans-fall-assume-professors-will-be-willing-teach-will-they and the discussion.

Other aspects to consider are in today's article https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/21/universities-determine-how-enforce-social-distancing

Thanks. I have been reading IHE and sometimes I put on my hazmat suit and wade into the IHE comments too. I did note one person there declaring that there is no problem because students are immune to corona virus. That would be welcome news if true, but it seems to be false. It does seem that children are less likely to pass on the virus than adults, but I haven't seen much info about the 18-22 age demographic. And some students are older.

[Caracal]

It may vary from class to class, but as I said before, I expect that the bulk of teaching will be online and what happens in the classroom will be largely window dressing. Maybe some small upper level courses and graduate seminars can still be conducted largely in classrooms, but not bigger classes.

But anyway, that's not what I was interested in. I am interested in what conditions facutly will have for setting foot in classrooms in the fall.

Really it is mostly about the broader situation regionally and in the country. If there's a ton of COVID around in the fall, it isn't going to be feasible to have classes. If spread is more limited, then it becomes possible. Things like reduced class sizes and hybrid models are designed to limit outbreaks, not provide total individual protection.

If cases are low in an area, but someone gets infected, but doesn't know it yet, on a Thursday, a hybrid model might mean they only go to one class and potentially only expose 20 people, instead of going to two full classes and exposing 80. If there's more space, of those 20, there's a good chance fewer will be infected. It helps to think of it more as a public health measure than about individual protection.

[downer]

It may vary from class to class, but as I said before, I expect that the bulk of teaching will be online and what happens in the classroom will be largely window dressing. Maybe some small upper level courses and graduate seminars can still be conducted largely in classrooms, but not bigger classes.

But anyway, that's not what I was interested in. I am interested in what conditions facutly will have for setting foot in classrooms in the fall.

Really it is mostly about the broader situation regionally and in the country. If there's a ton of COVID around in the fall, it isn't going to be feasible to have classes. If spread is more limited, then it becomes possible. Things like reduced class sizes and hybrid models are designed to limit outbreaks, not provide total individual protection.

If cases are low in an area, but someone gets infected, but doesn't know it yet, on a Thursday, a hybrid model might mean they only go to one class and potentially only expose 20 people, instead of going to two full classes and exposing 80. If there's more space, of those 20, there's a good chance fewer will be infected. It helps to think of it more as a public health measure than about individual protection.

OK but how does an individual faculty member decide what risks they are willing to take? The amount of social distancing, duration of class, ventilation, and barriers between students and faculty member are all relevant to individual risk for the faculty member.

[dr_codex]

It seems pretty clear that for most of us, the bulk of our teaching will really be online, in a CMS.

But it is also clear that many schools, for legal or financial reasons, also need to say that they offering a classroom experience in the fall.

I am definitely NOT walking into a full classroom until I know that the students will not infect me.

I can imagine doing tutorials or discussion with a reduced number of students some distance from me in a well ventilated classroom. (Given the number of classrooms where it is impossible to open windows, or there not any windows, that's an issue.) I'd be comfortable with maybe 10 students in a medium sized classroom or 25 students in a lecture hall. I might require them to wear masks. I would it to be reasonably short too. Maybe 45 mins.

What is your bottom line for entering a classroom this fall? What would make you refuse to be in the room?

Well, you will never get that guarantee (bolded), at least not from anybody honest. So, it sounds as though you will never teach in a full classroom again.

My bottom line is that I won't go in if there's a decent chance I'll be quarantined. My work can all be done remotely, however suboptimal that might be. My kids, however, need my in the flesh.

I refuse, at this point, to quantify "decent chance".

[arcturus]

Theoretically, I would be willing to teach face-to-face in a small class (under 15 students) in the fall, provided that the classroom was large enough to physically distance. As this describes the typical graduate class in my program, I would agree to teach a graduate course face-to-face. However, this fall, I will only agree to teach undergraduate courses that are offered in an online format. Our administration has yet to specify our work conditions for the fall, but there have been rumors that faculty will be allowed to choose online-only, even if the school is nominally offering face-to-face classes.

My concern with the undergraduate courses is two-fold: (1) it will be difficult to arrange the classrooms to have sufficient physical distances; and (2) I do not want to have to do the work twice, once for the in-class students and again (virtually) for the students who are self-quarantined because they came into contact with someone who is ill. Several people at my institution have pointed out the (uncompensated) extra work that was required to transition from face-to-face to online-only during the middle of the semester. No one at my institution has (yet) raised the issue that any class with a face-to-face component in the fall will almost certainly require alternative modes of teaching for the (perhaps large) fraction of students who cannot come to class either because they are sick (even a sniffle!) or are quarantined. Further, as discussed on a different thread, teaching online and teaching face-to-face have different advantages/disadvantages. Planning in advance regarding the mode of delivery is more likely to yield a successful learning environment for everyone. At the present time, the only sure mode of delivery for the fall is online-only, so that is what I would choose.