Welcome to the pandemic of 2020 and the revolution of Colleges and Universities worldwide. In the Boy Scouts we used to have a motto, “Always Be Prepared.” Well, Colleges and Universities never dream they would have to shut their doors due to a virus. This lack of preparation is from resistance from Faculty in recording lectures and courses online to protect their Rights. Now the virus is one up on Universities. With social distancing the large 300-500 students in a lecture hall at one time is an approach from the past. Large lecture halls always saved money for Universities. One Professor teaches 500 students at one time and graduate teaching fellows follow up with study groups and grading. Now Universities have to social distance which means reduce their seating to half the original causing the need for two lectures instead of one.
Who will clean off all the seats between lectures? How about the students being provided with sanitary wipes to wipe down their own seat and table? What about maintenance spraying the lecture halls between lectures with compresses portable spraying machines with alcohol or bleach mixed with water? Requiring masks to get into the lecture hall will also help. Wearing rubber gloves will add to the protection and every other seat left empty. It can be done if students take the virus seriously.
Streaming can be done in medical schools because they have only two lectures going on at one time and require less storage space than a University that has hundreds of lectures going on at one time. It seems the software companies have stepped up to make money. Google has Google classroom which allows you to create online slides and documents for online teaching. TpT offers digital software which can be used and many other sites offer templates for lesson plans, student activities and record keeping. It is doing, but difficult in the learning curve. In time it will be part of the whole system online and in person mixed together. I found Blackboard was a great University online platform years ago for Professors to post syllabus and tests with a lock box to receive student papers.
