Challenges of the Socially Distanced Classroom – Inside Higher Ed
Professors’ experiment suggests the limits of on-campus, hybrid instruction this fall. Big Ten universities expand sharing of online courses.
Even as more colleges announce plans to offer all instruction virtually this fall, many remain committed to at least some in-person courses — and to providing them in classrooms that are safe and effective for students and faculty members alike.
Which leads to experiments like the one that Anna L. McLoon and her colleagues conducted on the Siena College campus this summer, as described in an essay on Inside Higher Ed Monday read by tens of thousands of readers. (Others are described here and here.)
Like many small, residential colleges, the 3,100-student Franciscan institution 150 miles north of New York City deeply values in-person learning and still plans to bring many if not most students back to its campus this fall. The college’s current plan for fall calls for a mix of hybrid and remote learning, with classroom capacity limited to 50 percent of normal or students “seated at least three feet apart, whichever amounts to lower capacity.”