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Education Medicine

MIT Moves All Classes Online For the Rest of the Semester (mit.edu) 62

Posted by BeauHD from the safety-first dept.
In a letter to the MIT community, President L. Rafael Reif says the university is moving all classes online for the rest of the semester to slow the spread of COVID-19. Here's an excerpt: The overall plan is this:

1. All classes are cancelled for the week of Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 20. Because the following week is spring break, this will allow faculty and instructors two weeks to organize a full transition to online instruction.
2. Online instruction, which some units are already experimenting with this week, will begin for all classes on Monday, March 30, and continue for the remainder of the semester.
3. Undergraduates should not return to campus after spring break. Undergraduates who live in an MIT residence or fraternity, sorority or independent living group (FSILG) must begin packing and departing this Saturday, March 14. We are requiring undergraduates to depart from campus residences no later than noon on Tuesday, March 17. Please see below for details on graduate students.
4.Classes will continue this week as we continue to prepare for this transition.

We are taking this dramatic action to protect the health and safety of everyone at MIT -- staff, students, post-docs and faculty -- and because MIT has an important role in slowing the spread of this disease. As at any residential college, our residence halls and FSILGs put students in close quarters. What's more, the intense and free-flowing collaboration MIT is known for comes with close contact and shared spaces, equipment and supplies. These characteristics, which we cherish in normal times, increase the risk of COVID-19 spreading on our campus. Our plan follows directly from state health guidance that universities take steps to reduce the density of the population on campus and increase social distancing. By doing so, we are doing our part to reduce the spread of the disease overall, while directly reducing risk for our own community -- for departing students, of course, but equally for those of us who continue to work on campus.
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MIT Moves All Classes Online For the Rest of the Semester More

MIT Moves All Classes Online For the Rest of the Semester

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  • Are they going to refund any tuition fees? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by newcastlejon ( 1483695 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @06:45PM (#59816508)
    There's a huge difference between classroom-led teaching and merely emailing a copy of the presentation out to everyone.
    • Came to write that. You can't possibly simulate all lab assignments, despite virtual labs existing.

      • Came to write that. You can't possibly simulate all lab assignments, despite virtual labs existing.

        Not all. But many classes, such as just straight lectures, can be videoed and watched online.

        Instead of meeting everyday, classes could only physically meet once or twice a week. This would cut down on commuting and also enable many more students to be enrolled since they could be physically on-campus on different days of the week. This could help to reduce the cost of a university education.

        • I took a few video and online classes in college, admittedly way back in the dark ages around the turn of the century. They were intensely boring, and I felt like I learned far less than in person. I'm sure it'll work if you're extremely self-motivated and into the subject, but so would anything. Definitely not worth paying anywhere near as much for.

          MIT in particular has long offered a lot of free online courses. If paying MIT a fortune gets you exactly the same as you can get from MIT for free, the benefit

    • refund room and board + other fees?

      • Yep, room and board will cover about $100. But you still get that $119900 piece of paper at the end which is the only thing you actually paid big money for, so that's not refundable.

    • +1. I'd be furious if I'd spent the big $$$ for MIT tuition & housing and the school pulled the plug like this. MIT should refund the students for the lost time, or given them a semester's credit if they need extra classes to finish their degree. If not, I hope the students (or more likely, their wealthy parents footing the bill) launch a class action lawsuit.

      .

      Same thing is happening at $tanford and Harvard too. Why is it the most expensive schools are fine with ripping the rug out from under their

      • Why is it the most expensive schools are fine with ripping the rug out from under their students?

        Many smaller/cheaper colleges are doing the same thing. They just don't make the news.

        • Many smaller/cheaper colleges are doing the same thing. They just don't make the news.

          College dormitories are petri dishes for respiratory viruses. Now that schools like Harvard and MIT have set the precedent, I expect that most universities will be closing their dorms and sending students home for the rest of the semester. Once COVID-19 starts showing up in the undergraduate population, the floodgates will open.

      • +1. I'd be furious if I'd spent the big $$$ for MIT tuition & housing and the school pulled the plug like this.

        You didn't pay $$$ for MIT tuition and housing. You paid $$$ because the American education system bleeds students in an effort to get their degree. You only lost a few $ lunch money out of all of this. Your course goes on, your learning goes on, and you will get your expensive piece of paper at the end and retain all the value you paid for.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        +1. I'd be furious if I'd spent the big $$$ for MIT tuition & housing and the school pulled the plug like this.

        I'm sure that MIT will have to refund all the Room and Board fees, and possibly some course fees if students cancel their course enrollments due to the change in the offering; As
          MIT won't be delivering on the housing and meal plans that students had paid for... its just that simple.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by czar0 ( 6222918 )

      Chinese culture accelerated the propagation of the coronavirus from China to the rest of the world. An analysis [nytimes.com] published by the New York Times explains how the Chinese tendency to hide the truth allowed the coronavirus to spread quickly.

      Get more info [blogspot.com] about Chinese culture.

    • There's a huge difference between classroom-led teaching and merely emailing a copy of the presentation out to everyone.

      Yes there is which is why they aren't just doing the latter. You should actually try taking one of MIT's online classes one day. They have some free ones, your mind may actually be blown by what is involved.

    • Super expensive school and a big part of the education is labs/studios/facilities. Listening to a prof online is not worth $40k per semester. And, the room&board ? The fact that they are shutting down the school without being forced to be by any laws puts it squarely on their shoulders to make it right with the students&parents. What about credits for half finished courses? Not every course can be finished online.

  • Panicky idiots (Score:3)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @06:51PM (#59816518)
    Sending back throughout the country by trains planes and automobiles a demographic that, while likely to contract and spread the disease, is probably the least likely to need medical attention as a result. Mom, dad, grandma and grandpa, that they'll be going back home too, on the other hand....not quite. Stay calm, practice good hygiene, don't squeeze into tight quarters with other people. And be at peace with the fact that you'll probably get it eventually. Better to do so in a state 9f calm than a state of terror.

  • Homeless (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mr. Shiny New ( 525070 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @07:17PM (#59816580) Homepage
    Many students will have no alternative living arrangements nor will they be able to find them on such a short deadline. Sudden homelessness in Winter is a great way to deal with a pandemic.

    • Sudden homelessness in Winter

      Calm down. It's not like students are magically homeless every summer break.

      • Yes, but they have the whole school year to figure out what their living arrangements are next summer.

        From all appearances MIT is closing the dorms and giving them a week to GTFO.

    • It'll be fine as the greater Boston area has done ample job keeping up with the increasing housing demands for the area so there's lots of places they can move into on a moment's notice that are affordable. /s

      Maybe this will finally force communities to come to terms with a need for significantly more housing. Cambridge sure needs to if they're going to complain about car traffic from all the companies they're allowing in.

    • Sudden homelessness in Winter...

      What hell do you live in, bro? It is 68 degrees, sunny, with a light onshore breeze and 6-8 ft swells here today... Oh, but California is a total shit-hole, please stay away.

  • We should be concerned that they took this action because MIT doesn't do this lightly. Heck, until the Blizzard of '78, they didn't close the campus for anything.

    • We should be concerned about their susceptibility to mass hysteria. That'll end up doing more damage long after the virus has blown over.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        Came here to say this. I usually get modded down to hell when I do, though. This literally is mass hysteria. Next thing you know everyone will start thinking the T is emitting noxious fumes.

      • We should be concerned about their susceptibility to mass hysteria

        Except literally one of the things you should do is avoid large gatherings if you can. That's not mass hysteria, that's following sound advice.

      • From a purely selfish point of view, it's all a bunch of mass hysteria. If you refuse to avoid large gatherings yourself, you're extremely unlikely to suffer for it because there isn't a pervasive pandemic right now. But from society's point of view, people like you avoiding large gatherings is the only way to make sure there continues to not be a pandemic that could kill off a significant fraction of the elderly.

        The problem is that society cannot wait until there's a pandemic to act -- because by that time

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by flink ( 18449 )

          It already is a pandemic, they just aren't calling it one because of politics and the desire to avoid stoking the hysteria. The WHO refused to declare the H1N1 pandemic as such, and that infected something like 20% of the world population. At this point we might as well consider them to have discarded the term as a matter of policy.

  • Where do they go? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @07:34PM (#59816616)

    For the people living on campus, where are they supposed to go?

    Not everyone has a happy relationship with mom and dad. Moving in with them may not be an option.

    How are they supposed to get there? Some students are out of state, or even international. Not reasonable to expect them to front this unexpected and university mandated expense.

    Overall, this is bullshit.

    • Re:Where do they go? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Dragonslicer ( 991472 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @08:03PM (#59816678)
      MIT already said they will grant exemptions as needed.

    • For the people living on campus, where are they supposed to go?

      Not everyone has a happy relationship with mom and dad. Moving in with them may not be an option.

      So that affects a handful of the entire student population. What do they do over summer break? I'm sure someone clever enough to get into MIT has the necessary problem solving skills that this wouldn't be a problem. If it were, now would be a good time to drop out.

      • The difference is that summer break is on the schedule and can be planned for before you even apply to attend the school.

        The other difference is that you can arrange your summer housing far in advance, rather than all of the sudden, with no notice, along with thousands of other people in the same predicament.

  • Harvard just did the same thing (Score:5, Informative)

    by BigDukeSix ( 832501 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @07:38PM (#59816632)
    All dorms closed as of March 15th.

  • So much for lab courses (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jeremy Erwin ( 2054 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @07:41PM (#59816640) Journal

    So how's online organic chemistry taught at MIT? Just use your parent's kitchen?

  • Has nothing to do with slowing it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @08:15PM (#59816710) Journal

    this has nothing to do with slowing the spread of the disease, and everything to do with limiting the liability that MIT may be exposed to if it continues to have classes on campus knowing that some students may get sick.

  • OK, why aren't they closing all winter for the flu?

    I'll hang up and listen to your answer.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Blame The Network ( 5533826 )

      Because COVID-19 is between 20 and 50 times as deadly as flu, and spreads more easily.

      You can hang up now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bengie ( 1121981 )
        By demographic, many of the age brackets have 0.00% mortality rates. It's not until you start getting to the 40s that there is a hint. Between 50 and 60s, it shoots right up, but even then it's almost exclusively people with health issues, which is quite a few by those ages. The USA's higher overall mortality rate is because a nursing home got hit early on. Even now, nearly all deaths in the USA are due to that one nursing home.

        No one wants grandma to die, but from a logic stand point, there's nothing for
      • Show us the data, please. Show us the Denominator. Till then, you have zero credibility.

    • OK, why aren't they closing all winter for the flu?

      Because people don't make decisions based on your ignorance.

  • I'm an MIT parent... (Score:5, Informative)

    by wirelessjb ( 806759 ) on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @09:21PM (#59816848)
    ...and this is rough for everyone involved. Not many details have been figured out because this JUST happened. 24 hours ago we didn't think this was a likely scenario. I can address at least some of the slashdot comments. My kid is a freshman living in the dorms (as do most undergrads at MIT), and we live in California. 1. While this seems, on its face, to be reactive and knee-jerk, it's not. The administration is doing this under recommendation from state and federal authorities based on data that shows that reducing density and socialization on campus can benefit the public health. This is not a measure primarily to protect the kids, it's their sense of duty to play their part in the health system. I'm paraphrasing from President Reif's letter to the students. 2. Parents on the various social media groups are naturally concerned about tuition, housing costs, storage, and the cost of flights home, but I think most understand that these questions will be answered eventually. The priority right now is taking action to move students out. 3. There are huge logistical issues concerning international students and kids who for one reason or another can't go home. From our kid's observation and from the social media parents' groups, it looks like many, many parents are volunteering to host kids. It think it's pretty low risk to host someone that your kid knows, or even a fellow student that they don't know well. Also, MIT is granting exceptions on a limited basis for international students who can't get home and don't have other options. Again, this is about reducing density, not completely clearing the campus. 4. With regard to the effectiveness of online classes, I think this will be a learning experience all around, and maybe even serve to advance online learning a bit. One example so far, a class that was doing a hands-on lab is going to review data from a previous study instead. They will lose out on the hands-on part, which is unfortunate, but will not miss the bulk of the educational value of the class and the professor. School will be closed for 2 weeks starting next week, and the professors will be expected to use that time to prepare their online material. 5. From a personal standpoint, our kid was most sad for the adMITted high school seniors (announcement day is March 14) who won't get to experience the very fun, very busy Campus Preview Weekend in April, and sad for the graduating seniors who have to completely pack up and leave in a week with little hope of coming back for a graduation ceremony.
  • I think we're going to see a ton of other institutions following suit. Several universities in Ohio (at least, just reporting what I've seen locally) are cancelling weeks of classes and moving them online for a while. I haven't heard of any schools here doing it for the remainder of the semester, but everything more than a month out is still up in the air, and the end of the semester isn't all that far off.

    This coronavirus disruption is going to continue to be big news for a while. Some of what we're see

    • yea many east coast schools have cancelled, Purdue also just posted a notice for all the instructors to start prepping for online only classes and once spring break ends all classes will be online until the end of the semester with on-campus students being allowed to choose between staying on campus or going home

  • Given that direct interaction is a part that was paid for.

  • Any additional charges?

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