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

[Parasaurolophus]

No official word on F21 here, but looking at how things are playing out, I really rather doubt it. Our federal government is saying everyone will be vaccinated by the end of September, but that seems pretty optimistic. I also doubt our substantial jnternational student population will be able to return by then.

An online Fall suits me fine, though.

[marshwiggle]

No official word on F21 here, but looking at how things are playing out, I really rather doubt it. Our federal government is saying everyone will be vaccinated by the end of September, but that seems pretty optimistic. I also doubt our substantial jnternational student population will be able to return by then.

An online Fall suits me fine, though.

Yes and "by the end of September*" doesn't really help for starting classes in Septmber, so I'm betting January 2020 will be the start of "in-person".

*(Even if the predictions are accurate, since planning has to start sometime in the summer at the latest.)

[FishProf]

As we are careering toward a full f2f fall, there has been a hue and cry that we can CHOOSE whether to teach remotely or not.  This has never been the case previously, but some of my colleagues have decided that they've always had that authority.  It is turning into quite the fight.

If you look at cases and hospitalizations, there will be a dramatic drop. All adults will likely be able to vaccinated if they choose to by the summer. I don't see vaccines being mandated, though, since the FDA has only given emergency authorization for the vaccines.

I'm not sure why this is a response to my post. It doesn't seem related.

[Aster]

We're at well over a million vaccine shots per day now across the U.S.. Over 10% of the population has received at least one of the two combo-shot vaccines. We don't need to have everyone vaccinated to mostly reopen our colleges in the Fall, just enough people. Defining what "enough" means will be the real trick. The states with lower populations will probably be further along than places like California, New York, and Texas.

[Mobius]

As we are careering toward a full f2f fall, there has been a hue and cry that we can CHOOSE whether to teach remotely or not.  This has never been the case previously, but some of my colleagues have decided that they've always had that authority.  It is turning into quite the fight.

If you look at cases and hospitalizations, there will be a dramatic drop. All adults will likely be able to vaccinated if they choose to by the summer. I don't see vaccines being mandated, though, since the FDA has only given emergency authorization for the vaccines.

I'm not sure why this is a response to my post. It doesn't seem related.

It's a tangent, but somewhat related. In reality, who has the authority to determine mode of instruction? In most institutions, faculty are encouraged to emphasize certain modes (especially online before the pandemic) in an effort to stem enrollment declines. Funny how F2F is the emphasis, even though students don't seem to prefer it if you look at F2F attendance across the country (especially at regional publics with fairly lax admissions standards).

It is an issue for the faculty senate and/or union to hash out with provosts and deans.

[marshwiggle]

We're at well over a million vaccine shots per day now across the U.S.. Over 10% of the population has received at least one of the two combo-shot vaccines. We don't need to have everyone vaccinated to mostly reopen our colleges in the Fall, just enough people. Defining what "enough" means will be the real trick. The states with lower populations will probably be further along than places like California, New York, and Texas.

I can't see how opening with "just enough" people vaccinated means anything but chaos, since it will still require all of the same protocols as now, even if the likely number of potential victims is lower.

[Sun_Worshiper]

We have now received notice of face-to-face classes in Fall 2021. Not sure about things like masks and social distancing.

[OneMoreYear]

We have received notice that all classes with an enrollment of less than 40 will be in-person in the Fall (unless there is chair approval to offer it in another modality or it was already approved as an online course pre-COVID).  Some classes with enrollment greater than 40 may be partially in-person depending on large classroom availability, with priority for labs and other courses with active learning components.   We also have not received information about masks, but the fewer than 40 students rule is for social distancing. 

[lightning]

People are getting very tired of bait-and-switch. The multiple broken implied promises of a return to normalcy in Fall 2020, then the same letdown in Jan. 2021, and now summer 2021 is grating on students and their parents.

Three semesters in a row, students have stayed in the system and held out and put up with a sub-standard experience, because we've held out the hopes for normalcy.

I think we have reached the point where the customers are no longer going to put up with our bulls**t.

[FishProf]

It's a tangent, but somewhat related. In reality, who has the authority to determine mode of instruction? In most institutions, faculty are encouraged to emphasize certain modes (especially online before the pandemic) in an effort to stem enrollment declines. Funny how F2F is the emphasis, even though students don't seem to prefer it if you look at F2F attendance across the country (especially at regional publics with fairly lax admissions standards).

At FishProfU, they are honest enough to say "we need bodies in beds, and the surest way to get that is butts in seats", so we want enough F2F classes to make that possible.  I am teaching 4 classes this semester.  2 are f2f, one is hybrid, one fully online (and has always been so).  I'll  see if I can detect a pattern in performance/attendance.

So far: about 10% of my students in f2f, which is what they signed up for, are still perplexed if they have to come to class each week (hint: yes).  In my hybrid class, I have a bout 10% complaining that they "have to teach themselves" (hint: Monday class - 3 weeks in - 1 snow day, 1 holiday, 1 regular class meeting = so far, you have, but that stuff was ALWAYS going to be online, so no real change).

[dr_codex]

It's a tangent, but somewhat related. In reality, who has the authority to determine mode of instruction? In most institutions, faculty are encouraged to emphasize certain modes (especially online before the pandemic) in an effort to stem enrollment declines. Funny how F2F is the emphasis, even though students don't seem to prefer it if you look at F2F attendance across the country (especially at regional publics with fairly lax admissions standards).

Good question, and a burning one at my place.

For programs and some courses, I'd say the authority resides with State Ed, accrediting bodies, and bodies overseeing licensure. Some of these have granted pandemic waivers, but any body with the authority to grant a waiver is asserting authority.

For individual courses, it's muddy. In theory, my Chair makes the call. But that call isn't made in a vacuum, and senior administrators have lots of levers to induce what they want. Mandatory training; compliance measures; and reams of paperwork are the low-hanging fruit, but they also don't have to allow any specific course to run at all. And if we don't all play ball to some extent, we'll see a lot of interesting changes to our timetables.

I am also a bit bemused by the call for F2F classes. It's as though some people have forgotten why we (too) were pushed to develop online courses over the last decade. I'm predicting that when the Registrar tries to find space for all of the classes, and tries to fill a lot of schedules without expanding the number of F2F sections, a quiet word will be spoken into somebody's ear.

[the_geneticist]

We surveyed our students in Spring and they overwhelmingly HATED online classes.  But that was an emergency situation and when students registered they thought their classes would be in-person.

I'm not sure how they feel now that it's been a year and they know that this coming Spring will also be fully online.  We haven't seen any drop in enrollment in my department yet.  That means that at least one cohort of Freshmen knew that their classes would be online and paid their tuition anyway.  I don't know if we'll see the same for the coming Fall.  Those students were sort-of promised a return to all in-person classes, living in dorms, and dining on campus.

[secundem_artem]

Any news from your places about commencement?  Clouds on the horizon suggest Artem-Prez wants to hold a F2F ceremony.  We have a very low prevalence of Covid on campus, but who knows what cases of the rabies and the scabies and the flu all the various grandmothers, uncles and third cousins twice removed will visit upon our little corner of the ivory tower.

I'm thinking this is a bad idea.

[onthefringe]

It's a tangent, but somewhat related. In reality, who has the authority to determine mode of instruction? In most institutions, faculty are encouraged to emphasize certain modes (especially online before the pandemic) in an effort to stem enrollment declines. Funny how F2F is the emphasis, even though students don't seem to prefer it if you look at F2F attendance across the country (especially at regional publics with fairly lax admissions standards).

It is an issue for the faculty senate and/or union to hash out with provosts and deans.

I think the previous emphasis on online coursework was due to a widespread belief that once you have a university and its infrastructure running, adding online classes is a relatively cheap way to bring in more tuition. Allegedly all you need is (cheap) instructors and a little extra IT support, so most of the new tuition is *profits*

Now we are dealing with the fact that at many places the traditional students we built and maintain the infrastructure for want a "college experience" and their parents don't want to pay for room and board and expensive tuition if the actual education part looks to them just like online coursework at the local community college.

I don't actually think either of these premises is particularly well grounded in fact, but it's my guessat the perverse incentives that are driving our decisions right now.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Any news from your places about commencement?  Clouds on the horizon suggest Artem-Prez wants to hold a F2F ceremony.  We have a very low prevalence of Covid on campus, but who knows what cases of the rabies and the scabies and the flu all the various grandmothers, uncles and third cousins twice removed will visit upon our little corner of the ivory tower.

I'm thinking this is a bad idea.

Haven't heard a word, but I highly doubt F2F commencement will happen at my place in early May. Probably in December though, if trends continue.