Doug Lederman has an interesting article up at Inside Higher Ed today. The lede:
If campuses are still off-limits to students come September, this spring's version of remote learning won't suffice. Some colleges are preparing (quietly) to deliver better online learning at scale if needed.
More:
Depending on how things go -- what the arc of COVID-19 is nationally or in certain regions of the country, whether physical distancing rules are still in place, etc. -- college campuses may remain off-limits to students come September. Whether that's a 5 percent likelihood, or 25 percent or 50 percent, I have no idea (I'm no Tony Fauci, and even he can't say for sure). But it's almost certainly not zero.
In such a scenario, the impact on college campuses would be enormous -- operationally, financially and otherwise.
[...]
Any decisions about the fall are multiple weeks, if not months, away, and many people aren't ready to discuss the topic, at least publicly. But some foresighted campus officials are (often quietly) exploring that possibility, and I'd like to share some early assertions (or at least hypotheses) based on those discussions.
A great take on things, and I certainly appreciate the "kudos" that Lederman aims at institutions early in the article (albeit primarily at the academic side of the house).
That said, I also see lots of ire being directed at folks in higher education regarding that notion of "preparing quietly" (i.e. not being timely or transparent about decision-making).
That said, I also see lots of ire being directed at folks in higher education regarding that notion of "preparing quietly" (i.e. not being timely or transparent about decision-making).
What the critics fail to see (or understand) is that right now many of us are thinking in increments of days rather than weeks or months. "I don't know" is a common response for many of the questions that I receive from both staff and students and families.
"I don't know", or some variant of "We're working on it."
When has higher education been a community that is well-known for making decisions quickly? Spoiler alert: never. I think that the fact that most institutions were able to pivot to remote learning/working as quickly as we have is unbelievable (and certainly unprecedented).
I can't speak for other institutions, but from my perspective it is not that colleges and universities are intentionally trying to hide information from students, families, school counselors, or CBOs. Rather, it's simply that things are evolving rapidly at each institution.
Information about projects, processes, timelines, and expectations are changing by the hour - and so must our reactions. I know that I am hesitant to send out mass updates for fear of the information that I'm communicating becoming out-of-date as soon as it hits folks' inboxes.
So, for right now, please be patient with us. Indeed, "we're working on it."
Categories:
Coronavirus,
Higher Education