Synopsis, Fall 2020 Working Groups

Introduction

This is a synopsis of the reports of three working groups examining different aspects of Fall 2020 in-person course delivery:

1. Criteria for determining in-person courses;
2. Classroom safety aspects;
3. Delivering an in-person first-year experience.

Executive Summary

The major point is that size is a massive constraint on what can be taught in person in Fall 2020. However, rooms can be made and kept safe for instruction at a relatively modest cost. The aspects of the student experience that are difficult to replicate in an online environment, such as labs/studios/performance and cohort building, should be in person if possible; the latter point includes both first-year students generally and Honors students in particular.

Size

The need to maintain social distancing as a prime means of inhibiting transmission of Covid-19 until an effective vaccine is widely available presents a fundamental constraint on in-person course delivery for Fall 2020, and in fact until such a vaccine exists. Fixed-tier classrooms, the largest spaces on campus, are particularly affected by distancing guidelines. Full information is in the ICS Operational Strike Force report appendices, but the table below summarizes general use and departmentally controlled classroom space under distancing guidelines (the table does not include lab spaces):

It is clear from this table that it will be very difficult to teach a large class, or even a class above 20 students, on campus as normal. Some alternative methods such as alternating in-person and online class periods for groups of enrolled students may expand the number of possible in-person courses, but the criteria group would privilege for this type of schedule only the courses for which there was a defined need for students to spend part of their course time on campus. As a very rough guess, perhaps about 250 non-lab courses could be taught in person.

 Experiential spaces are harder to estimate because they are all unique or close to it, but the ICS report estimates lab capacity under distancing guidelines to range from 25-75 percent of normal. Using, once again, a very rough guess at capacity, about 100 labs might be able to be taught in person.

Safety

Distancing is one aspect of safety in a classroom. Others include cleaning and disinfecting, protective materials such as masks or face shields, and behavior within the classroom.

Cleaning/disinfecting is possible multiple times per day at a modest cost. The model currently used indicates that one hour between classes would allow for sufficient cleaning/disinfecting time in any classroom. Such could allow for as many as five class meetings per day in a classroom, although the schedule may need to be lengthened to accommodate this number of meetings. The cost of cleaning/disinfecting, at least the personnel cost, seems manageable given the $155/room/week figure, as one student retained or enrolled (who otherwise would not be at Western) would pay, in the quarter, for about 10 rooms per week to be cleaned/disinfected.

Face shields were the consensus approach to personal protection in labs. These are readily available for relatively little cost—less than $3 per mask. For non-lab classes, N95 masks likely would be able to be provided to the faculty, and students would need to follow current health guidelines for facial coverings. It is unclear whether Western would provide such coverings for the students.

EHS has developed a set of guidelines for behavior and supplies in the classroom. It is part of the first-year experience report.

Criteria

With the understanding of size and safety above and in the reports, one can interpret the criteria developed by that working group, as well as similar recommendations from the first-year experience group. Both want to privilege the types of experiences that do not translate well online. The criteria group emphasized experiential parts of courses, such as labs, studios, and performances. The first-year experience group emphasized the importance of an on-campus experience in a student’s initial encounter with a university. Therefore it is recommending, with at least one reservation, that as many new students (including Honors students) as can fit in the dorms within distancing guidance be housed for the entire quarter, not broken up into groups to allow all new students to have a short on-campus experience, and that sufficient freshman-oriented small-group seminars be offered on-campus so all new students can register for one.

This was echoed by the criteria group’s recommendations that 1) students in the first or second quarter of a cohort (second quarter included since Spring 2020 was completely remote teaching) have an on-campus classroom experience, and 2) that students who otherwise might not be able to have a type of classroom experience in their college careers have the chance to be on campus for that experience. The criteria group’s final recommendation is that on-campus experiences should be available to students who need them to continue making progress toward a degree. This might include master’s students in their final quarters for capstone/thesis work; other examples are likely as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one more recommendation from the first-year experience group should be mentioned, although it is outside of the group’s scope: that is that students not return to campus after Thanksgiving break, with the balance of the quarter being fully online.