Reopening plans for the University of Utah, where I am a professor and my son attends, are available at https://returntocampus.utah.edu/. This web page is not very specific, but states that classes will resume "in a mixture of in-person and hybrid delivery," that fall break will be cancelled, and that instruction will shift to all online after the Thanksgiving break. Physical distancing "protocols" will be in place. All individuals "are expected" to follow state and local guidelines for wearing face coverings.
Not discussed at all but hopefully forthcoming soon, are testing protocols, how the university will define and deal with outbreaks, whether or not mask wearing will be mandatory, options for high-risk students, etc.
My daughter attends Arizona State and their reopen information is a bit more detailed and available at https://www.asu.edu/about/fall-2020. They use branding to discuss what they are planning (e.g., ASU immersion, ASU sync, iCourses), but essentially the strategy is similar, although they are more explicit that some courses will be entirely online. They are also more explicit about plans to use synchronous learning in which some students attend online while others attend in person. They state that employees and students will be required to wear a face cover while in ASU buildings and in outdoor community areas where distancing is not possible. They provide considerable information on testing availability and they like.
My view is that ASU is ahead of the U right now in terms of providing more detailed (but still not detailed enough) information to students and parents, but know the U is working to provide more detials. However, I am still concerned about reopening at both schools and other institutions.
The coronavirus is a highly infectious disease often spread by asymptomatic individuals in indoor areas. Per capita case rates in the United States are remarkably high and even in Utah they are higher than many other countries. On June 1st, Utah reached 9,999 cases (call it 10,000), which is 3,125 per million people. I've put that on a chart below (red dot) relative to cases per million people from several other countries to illustrate where we were on June 1.
Since then, cases have spiked, so instead of flattening the curve, ours is bending up again.
Given the prevalence of coronavirus in the community, the mobility and social interconnectivity of students, and the reality of in-person instruction and other learning activities, are universities being realistic about the potential for spread or outbreak and the effectiveness of hybrid teaching?
According to the Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis, during the 2019/20 school year, 24,485 undergraduate and 8,333 graduate students attended the University of Utah. The U also had 2,167 full- and part-time faculty members. I could not find a count on their site for staff, but suspect it would be several thousand (perhaps more) if we include administrative and research staff. Basically, the University of Utah is a small city of more than 40,000 people, not counting the hospitals and medical facilities.
A large fraction of these people travel to and from campus from all over the metro area. This often involves taking mass transit, which is often quite full during the morning commute. People need to eat and get around between classes. There are many choke points on campus. Students are going to socialize. Thus, the potential for coronavirus spread or outbreak extends beyond the classroom and even campus.
Hybrid instruction is being sold as a option of providing an in-person experience with social distancing, but what this will involve at the University of Utah is unclear. How often will students attend class? Will the instructor need to teach simultaneously in-person and online? Will there be online lectures with a portion of the class attending shorter, in-person classes? Will faculty have the freedom to design an approach that works best for their topics and activities? Is this really better than online?
Instruction varies tremendously at universities with a wide range of teaching topics, activities, and environments. Some classes are nearly (or maybe completely) impossible to teach effectively online, others can be taught nearly as effectively online as they can in-person with the tremendous restrictions imposed by the coronavirus. Thus, as a faculty member I'm interested in having some ability to decide what is best for my classes. As a parent, I'm most concerned about my children receiving a good educational experience. I support classes that can be taught effectively online taking advantage of that format in the hopes that other classes that my children take that really require in-person instruction have the best chance of being offered through the semester without a lot of abrupt cancelations or transitions to all online due to outbreaks.
Finally, there is the reality that the coronavirus will be on campus. Outbreaks may necessitate switching to full online instruction with little notice. Faculty, staff, and students are going to need to miss an above-average number of classes due to coronavirus or illnesses with corona-virus-like symptoms. In some instances, the symptoms could be severe or worse. Care for students who may quarantined far from home is a concern that I have as a parent. There are other scenarios that I would rather not think about.
Ultimately, I would like to see the following:
1. Strong encouragement of faculty and staff to continue to telework as much as is possible to reduce density on campus and transit (I believe this would occur if the U is at "yellow" or higher risk levels).
2. Strong encouragement of students to reduce their presence on campus as much as possible, taking advantage of tele options to meet with faculty, advisors, etc.
3. Providing faculty with the option to design their course (online or various hybrid options) in a way that they think will be most effective while still meeting University distancing and other criteria.
4. Encouraging faculty faculty to move classes online if they can do so effectively.
5. Mandatory mask use in classrooms and public spaces.
6. Transparency in all decision making, which considers diverse perspectives.
I confess pessimism about the plans currently being put forth by Utah, Arizona State and other universities, although I hope that ultimately that pessimism is unjustified.
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