It's time to end the consensual hallucination of fall in-person classes

[polly_mer]

https://www.profgalloway.com/higher-ed-enough-already

The comments are as good as this opinion piece.

[Anselm]

Good article and my comment is there using one of my aliases.

[mythbuster]

Most of this is absolute truth. The part about the great trans-formative power of online courses. . .  not so much.

[bio-nonymous]

After reading the piece (some really good points--administration is blindly pursuing the bottom line without regard for the consequences and fallout to come) and skimming through the comments, I once again return to my mantra that online learning and even self-paced distance education is fine for some things; but the University campus is also an engine for scientific research and a place where hands-on technical skills are taught. You cannot lean to do a Western Blot with any actual skill by reading about it or even watching demonstration on YouTube--you have to physically do it--over and over again. You cannot engage in most biomedical and hard science research on your laptop at home. It seems that some of the commenters were all-in on dismantling tradition University structure and making everything online. Obviously that can't happen--if I worked at Dow Chemicals I wouldn't want to hire a new organic chemist who had never set foot in laboratory. Thinking of Technical Colleges: how do you teach autobody repair, for example, online with no opportunity for the students to actually work on cars in the shop? Who would hire these grads with no skills, only book learning?

The problem with online test cheating was brought up by a commentator as a recipe to further increase grade inflation--another prescient point. Lockdown browsers can be circumvented. The online proctoring systems (privacy concerns aside) can  be defeated by multiple screens or picture-in-picture monitor set-ups--many systems supposedly track eye movement off the screen and use an algorithm to detect cheating (doesn't work if your test is open in one picture-in-picture and you have your etextbook, or your curated notes, open in the other picture--your eyes don't leave the screen). Solutions? Maybe online learning and then in-person standard proctored tests with social distancing? I don't know what to think.

[writingprof]

For what it's worth, I refuse to suspect, spot, hear rumors of, or be troubled by cheating until regular in-person classes resume. In person, I can gauge the potential political fallout of a cheating accusation. Online, I find it far more difficult to do so. Thus, it's in my interest to make no such accusations for the time being, as I might inadvertently accuse a student whose identity confers upon him or her the power to destroy me.

But, yeah, the fall in-person thing seems increasingly unlikely. I'm certainly waiting until much later in the summer to make my syllabi.

[TreadingLife]

For what it's worth, I refuse to suspect, spot, hear rumors of, or be troubled by cheating until regular in-person classes resume. In person, I can gauge the potential political fallout of a cheating accusation. Online, I find it far more difficult to do so. Thus, it's in my interest to make no such accusations for the time being, as I might inadvertently accuse a student whose identity confers upon him or her the power to destroy me.

But, yeah, the fall in-person thing seems increasingly unlikely. I'm certainly waiting until much later in the summer to make my syllabi.

Random question, writingprof--are you tenure track/tenured or on term contracts? I don't deny the sensitive nature of accusing someone of cheating or plagiarism. I've brought many students before the honor board for cheating and I haven't once thought about the race/gender/religion/politics of the student involved. However, I would be naive to say that it wouldn't cross my mind now given our current political climate, and I am tenured.

[writingprof]

For what it's worth, I refuse to suspect, spot, hear rumors of, or be troubled by cheating until regular in-person classes resume. In person, I can gauge the potential political fallout of a cheating accusation. Online, I find it far more difficult to do so. Thus, it's in my interest to make no such accusations for the time being, as I might inadvertently accuse a student whose identity confers upon him or her the power to destroy me.

But, yeah, the fall in-person thing seems increasingly unlikely. I'm certainly waiting until much later in the summer to make my syllabi.

Random question, writingprof--are you tenure track/tenured or on term contracts? I don't deny the sensitive nature of accusing someone of cheating or plagiarism. I've brought many students before the honor board for cheating and I haven't once thought about the race/gender/religion/politics of the student involved. However, I would be naive to say that it wouldn't cross my mind now given our current political climate, and I am tenured.

I'm tenured.  But, come on.  Progressive faculty don't need tenure, and conservative faculty won't be saved by it.

[jimbogumbo]

For what it's worth, I refuse to suspect, spot, hear rumors of, or be troubled by cheating until regular in-person classes resume. In person, I can gauge the potential political fallout of a cheating accusation. Online, I find it far more difficult to do so. Thus, it's in my interest to make no such accusations for the time being, as I might inadvertently accuse a student whose identity confers upon him or her the power to destroy me.

But, yeah, the fall in-person thing seems increasingly unlikely. I'm certainly waiting until much later in the summer to make my syllabi.

Tenure saved Mike Adams plenty. And he got to retire early with $500,000.

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2020/07/02/pw-exclusive-prof-mike-adams-wild-ride-finally-comes-to-an-end/

Random question, writingprof--are you tenure track/tenured or on term contracts? I don't deny the sensitive nature of accusing someone of cheating or plagiarism. I've brought many students before the honor board for cheating and I haven't once thought about the race/gender/religion/politics of the student involved. However, I would be naive to say that it wouldn't cross my mind now given our current political climate, and I am tenured.

I'm tenured.  But, come on.  Progressive faculty don't need tenure, and conservative faculty won't be saved by it.

[secundem_artem]

I wager 500 quatloos that even if we're all F2F in September, we'll be back online by mid October.  And a lot of us will be unemployed by January.

[mamselle]

Meanwhile the elementary-middle-high school sector is being dictated to by bird-brains:

   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1233061

M.

[wareagle]

I wager 500 quatloos that even if we're all F2F in September, we'll be back online by mid October.  And a lot of us will be unemployed by January.

I have several bets out there that we send them all home by Halloween.  Maybe we should start a forum pool and everyone pick a date.

[bio-nonymous]

I wager 500 quatloos that even if we're all F2F in September, we'll be back online by mid October.  And a lot of us will be unemployed by January.

I have several bets out there that we send them all home by Halloween.  Maybe we should start a forum pool and everyone pick a date.

Just got a notice this afternoon that our Governor may be moving us back to Phase 1--no decision until July 29th - 31st, and if so all courses will be DE. That is less than 2 weeks before our updated new "Fall" start...the bait and switch might be on, and out of our hands!

[spork]

I wager 500 quatloos that even if we're all F2F in September, we'll be back online by mid October.  And a lot of us will be unemployed by January.

I'm acquainted with the parent of an incoming freshman at a U. Texas campus. Semester begins next month. The parent is predicting that she will be coming home within three weeks after the first day of classes.

Pomona and Scripps announced that they will be 100% online in the fall.

[Hegemony]

Bio-nonymous, you're not wrong, but the issue is: we're in the middle of a pandemic. To teach those classes safely would require a lot more money than anyone is willing to devote to it.

Everyone (not just on the Fora) is saying things like "But students need their education!" and "But they won't be able to learn or do X, Y, or Z!" And the parents on the places hang out add "But Jason has to be on the wrestling team!" "But Emily's worked for years to make the tennis team!"

But — that's what we call a crisis. In World War II, people's education was also disrupted, would-be scientists were taken away from their labs, and the tennis team fell apart. Yeah, it wasn't ideal. That's why it's called a crisis. That's what we're in. It's not business as usual, as much as everyone would like it to be. It's "Everything is disrupted until we get this thing genuinely under control." And in the U.S. and a certain number of other countries (though definitely not all), we show no sign of having enough consensus about any aspect of it to get it genuinely under control any time soon.

[dismalist]

Bio-nonymous, you're not wrong, but the issue is: we're in the middle of a pandemic. To teach those classes safely would require a lot more money than anyone is willing to devote to it.

Everyone (not just on the Fora) is saying things like "But students need their education!" and "But they won't be able to learn or do X, Y, or Z!" And the parents on the places hang out add "But Jason has to be on the wrestling team!" "But Emily's worked for years to make the tennis team!"

But — that's what we call a crisis. In World War II, people's education was also disrupted, would-be scientists were taken away from their labs, and the tennis team fell apart. Yeah, it wasn't ideal. That's why it's called a crisis. That's what we're in. It's not business as usual, as much as everyone would like it to be. It's "Everything is disrupted until we get this thing genuinely under control." And in the U.S. and a certain number of other countries (though definitely not all), we show no sign of having enough consensus about any aspect of it to get it genuinely under control any time soon.

Yes, absolutely. But why should we expect consensus? There are the old and ill, and the young and healthy. There are those who live in densely populated cities and states, and those who don't. There are those who live in densely populated buildings, and those who don't.

Consensual solutions can come only among smallish or concentrated groups of people.