Nothing makes sense any more » « “Stop testing.”

As expected…University of Minnesota closes in-person classes

And here we go…

We are suspending in-person instruction, including field experiences and clinicals, across our five campuses and are moving to online, or alternative, instruction. Students on the Morris and Crookston campuses will have in-person classes through this Friday, March 13.

I guess my spring break will be spent trying to figure all this out.

Nothing makes sense any more » « “Stop testing.”

Comments

  1. markgisleson says

    This year’s class will forever more remember you as a six-inch animated hologram on their dorm room desk.

  2. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Just checked where I taught in Dah Yoo Pee. They have suspended face-to-face classes too.

  3. weylguy says

    The COVID-19 outbreak is working to the GOP’s advantage after all. They hate higher education, and it may not be long before the associated virus of fact-based, evidentiary truth will be expunged from young Amerika forever.

  8. MichaelE says

    Yup, my country’s government just shut down all non-essential services as well. Hell, I work maintenance in a community gym and I’ve been told to stay at home too.
    Number of infected in Denmark (my country) has increased ten-fold since Monday, so yeah. Understandable, I guess.

  9. mcgeekan says

    Waiting on the Australian Government to initiate similar measures. I’m not a fan of our illustrious leader Scum-mo, but he’s been more proactive on this issue than the leaders of many other western countries. Rather than wheeling out an idiot that denies science, we’re getting the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy dipensing our information.
    I suspect our government is interested in evidence (rather than opinion) this time, because COVID-19 will affect the Aussie dollar and the holy grail of unfettered “economic growth”,

  10. Marc Whitaker says

    I’m working out how to continue teaching middle school algebra over YouTube live stream when this hits my town. If I’m getting paid and students are supposed to be staying home, no reason we can’t struggle on.

  12. robro says

    While I wouldn’t say this event presages a “world change” in how we work, it could have profound effects on business and education being more supportive of “remote” work. This shift is already underway and this could be a stimulus for more moves there.

    There’s a growing realization that a lot can get done without congregating in an office building or classroom. Not everything, for sure, but enough to make it worthwhile to figure out how to make remote work more efficient and effective.

    I’ve been primarily working from home since last July. I have other colleagues who live in North Carolina and eastern Washington. We have three main offices, one in Bangalore, India, so we’re already dealing with video based meeting, extreme time zone differences, etc. For the next few weeks (at least) my colleagues are encouraged to work from home as much as possible. I have a friend who works at GitLab, a remote only business. Education has actually led the way with remote learning programs, my son actually prefers them.

    There are certainly down sides to it, and the tools for meeting aren’t great but it is happening. Even Microsoft has come out with a software app (Teams) for the Office suite specifically to meet this need. It will be interesting to see how the developer community finds opportunities to fill the gaps.

    Interesting side effect of most of the people in an office working from home: some of my colleagues have to go into work for various reasons (e.g. they don’t have a good place to work at home), but the office is largely empty so it’s probably as safe as anywhere else they might be.

  15. billseymour says

    I read in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Washington University in St. Louis will also be extending spring break and telling dorm residents not to show up after break. No word on when the kids will be able to reclaim their stuff.

    It’s not just schools. I just found out that the next meeting of the ISO standards committee for the C++ programming language, scheduled for June in Varna, Bulgaria, has been cancelled. Bummer. I’ve never been to Eastern Europe. (I missed the February meeting in Prague because I couldn’t take the time off work.)

    Actually, I’m well aware that I’m fortunate to be able to travel like that at all, not to mention being able to hang around with folks who are smarter than I; but still…