Yousuf El-Jayyousi, a junior engineering student at the University of Missouri, wanted guidance and reassurance that it would be safe to go back to school for the fall semester. He tuned into a pair of online town halls organized by the university hoping to find that.
He did not.
The digital transformation of higher education is in full throttle. Spurred by evolving pandemic pressures and bolstered by the benefits of new technology solutions, postsecondary schools are embracing various distance-, blended- and hybrid-learning formats to maximize student success in challenging environments. But are they doing it securely?
As educators, we craft learning experiences based on the pedagogical foundations set by those who came before us. In higher education, the student persistence and retention strategies used by institutions all over the world are built on the seminal works of great theorists such as John H. McNeely (1937), John Summerskill (1962), William G. Spady (1971), Vincent Tinto (1975), Alexander Astin (1977), and others.
When June 21 marked 100 days since universities collectively flipped to remote learning, I completed a qualitative analysis of the suddenly-virtual classroom based on the experiences of 50 faculty, students and staff at 40+ campuses worldwide. As “post-COVID” becomes common parlance, I learnt of the personal impact of this watershed phase in health and human interaction as it accelerates long-emergent changes at campuses. It is amplifying deficiencies and strengths in institutional models and forcing a deeper reckoning of the relevance of higher education.
In recent years, higher education leaders have known that achievement gaps between races persist, student debt keeps rising, more jobs will be automated and many students have adapted to online learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating these trends, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors learned during Sunday’s retreat.
The board heard a data-packed presentation and brainstormed goals as masked members and administrators gathered underneath the pavilion at Smithfield Plantation on the eve of the board’s two-day regular meeting.
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Less than a month ago, thousands of out-of-state Cornell students were planning early returns to campus so that they could ride out New York state’s mandatory two-week quarantine in university-provided housing before starting the fall semester.
But on July 30, after New York added 10 more states to its growing travel advisory list, the school said it could no longer offer quarantine accommodations.
Using smart thermometers that collect data about where people have fevers, it’s possible to estimate how many of those fevers might be due to COVID-19—and predict hotspots before patients go to the doctor for coronavirus tests. A new analysis uses that data to map out where cases may soon spike.
When it comes to conducting classes this fall, most colleges seem to be stuck between holding in-person or remote classes, or some combination of the two. As a researcher who focuses on the design of educational spaces, I believe there’s a fourth option that’s not being given its due: outdoor spaces, such as open-air tents.
From a learning space design perspective, this could be an effective way of maintaining in-person instruction, even when temperatures drop later in the fall.
In his temporary injunction, 2nd Judicial Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson said Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran "arbitrarily prioritized reopening schools statewide in August over safety, and over the advice of health experts and that all districts complied in order to avoid loss of state funding."
The ruling was a win for teacher unions.
"This is a great day for public schools," Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram said at a late afternoon news conference. "Sometimes, the good guys win, and today is that day."