Harvard prof: I don't think anyone in the US will be sitting in a university classrm 2 wks from now.

[Dennis Donovan]

Jason Furman ✔@jasonfurman

The idea that Harvard switch to online classes seemed like an overreaction 5 days ago. Today we made the obviously right decision to ask our undergraduates not to return after spring break. I don’t think anyone in the US will be sitting in a university classroom 2 wks from now.

“Obviously right” because we have no confirmed cases of Covid-19. But if and when we do it will be too late. How do 6,700 undergraduates living in dorms and eating together in dining halls self isolate? How could we send them home then?

We will all be doing our best to be as accessible as possible online and to continue our learning mission. But this is costly for our students and all of us. But the benefits for us and the broader community clearly outweigh the costs—a practical lesson in externalities.

I share because of the broader lesson for our personal lives, our workplaces & policy. What appears paranoid one week seems prophetic the next. Everything everyone has done has been on the side of too little & too late. I can't wait for us all to start making the opposite error.

9:12 AM - Mar 10, 2020

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[dewsgirl]

1. K and R

[Dennis Donovan]

3. Italy's death toll just shot up - largest 1 day jump there

Link to tweet

[dewsgirl]

5. Yikes.😳

[MissB]

2. Still holding out hope on graduation

We were never attending the large ceremony- always planned on the smaller department ceremony.

Plane tickets are paid for, but I’m now seeing that our tickets are waitlisted? Not sure why, trying to find out.

Hotel is paid for.

[cbdo2007]

4. A lot of issues to bring up here...students paid for room and board

so will they be refunded a prorated amount since they won't be in the dorms?

What about those who participate in extracurricular events, are all of those cancelled or will those students still need to stay in the area somewhere??

I know there are a lot of things in education you can do virtually now, such as normal daily classes/lectures and assignments, but they aren't realistically planning on doing Finals over the computer right? Maybe some larger schools like Harvard have the infrastructure in place but smaller state schools wouldn't have this set up in time to do.

Not trying to argue anything, just stuff to think about.

[cbdo2007]

7. Also, "moving out" as I remember it from College was thousands of students and parents...

loading up boxes for a whole weekend of chaos. Wouldn't it be worse to have all that chaos right now, and parents coming in from all over the country to help move their kids out, while the initial spread of the virus is so new and just expanding? Or are they expecting students to go home and come back in a few months to move their stuff out?

I don't know that it wouldn't have been better to just keep the students there and have them skip spring break and keep the ending of school at the same time, and hope that the virus dies down as the temp warms up leading into summer.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. This is sad. I'm afraid a lot of schools will never go back to traditional classes across the board.

Personally, I've never warmed to online classes, and I'm self-educated in a lot of areas outside my degree, so I'm used to independent learning of a sort. I just don't feel the intensity of a regular classroom environment is well simulated by online instruction, nor is it improved upon. And teaching online seems to demand even more prep time than lecturing, much of it requiring tech skills with whatever commercial POS software package your school has chosen to force on everyone. Most of what I've seen still looks a long way from being ready for prime time. Increasing demand for online presentations is making it increasingly unlikely that I'm going to like any teaching job I'm able to get, and making sure there are fewer of those, as well.

[mercuryblues]

8. My kid came home Saturday for spring break

Yesterday he went to bed and hasn't come out of his room. Headache, stuffy nose, sore throat and fever. He had a flu shot.

Normally I wouldn't be so concerned. But I live in a red state and don't trust the CDC under trump.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Fever is the only symptom he's displaying that is similar to COVID19.

[mercuryblues]

14. Never believed I would say this as a parent

I am glad he has a sore throat. AFAIK that is not a symptom.

[Coventina]

9. What about community colleges?

[caraher]

11. Same, I imagine, for the most part

Pretty much everyone in higher ed is scrambling to offer something online.

[Initech]

12. Hooray for isolation!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. MAGAts and Fox want to ignore it away. Won't work.