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MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

web.mit.edu

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Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#11

Post by colechristensen »

JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

A university education is not a SaaS product.

We are getting to the point where lectures should be mandated to be recorded and put into the public domain, and the University's value proposition in admission, tuition, and residence should be the everything else involved which could raise the focus away from re-doing the same lectures over and over.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#13

Post by BelleOfTheBall »

enitihas wrote: post #6
nightfly wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At other schools the online offerings for courses can be more expensive than the in-person offerings. Online doesn't mean that you have unlimited capacity for students. You still need to grade homework and exams, offer virtual "office hours", answer emails.

> You still need to grade homework and exams, offer virtual "office hours", answer emails. But all of the above can be done by TAs, and do not need a professor. Professor time is much more limited.

That still takes 'manpower', which is limited, and there's likely some stipulations that require the professors to actually do one-on-one time with students, not just always delegate to TAs.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#14

Post by enitihas »

BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #13
enitihas wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You still need to grade homework and exams, offer virtual "office hours", answer emails. But all of the above can be done by TAs, and do not need a professor. Professor time is much more limited.

That still takes 'manpower', which is limited, and there's likely some stipulations that require the professors to actually do one-on-one time with students, not just always delegate to TAs.

Yup, but it should free up professor time by a large amount. Manpower is still limited, but far more manpower is available compared to before.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#15

Post by whymauri »

JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

I've been told there are currently meetings to discuss the process for partially reimbursing room and board.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#16

Post by icegreentea2 »

enitihas wrote: post #7

Where will students go? 1. Students with financial difficulties or out of state students 2. International students

The letter says contact administration and it will be handled on a case by case basis.

shrug, probably the best thing to do.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#17

Post by whymauri »

kasey_junk wrote: post #12

This seems like its likely to have dramatically more serious consequences for the less privileged students. Lots of people don’t have a place other than school they can live & be successful.

There are students at MIT/Harvard that will temporarily be rendered homeless. Some are depending on the generosity of local friends/classmates to find temporary lodging.

It's getting kinda wild.

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#18

Post by [deleted] »

neets wrote: post #5
JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

Aren't undergraduate ivy league programs more about signaling status than actually becoming educated?

[deleted]

Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

#20

Post by mumblemumble »

nightfly wrote: post #4
JPKab wrote: post #2

One of my coworkers daughters is affected by this. The big question this begs: If there is no refund being offered for the content shifting online from in-person, why have in-person at all? Is room and board going to be refunded? If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all? Edit: Understood that infinite sized classes aren't workable for human intensive grading, inter…

At other schools the online offerings for courses can be more expensive than the in-person offerings. Online doesn't mean that you have unlimited capacity for students. You still need to grade homework and exams, offer virtual "office hours", answer emails.

> At other schools the online offerings for courses can be more expensive than the in-person offerings.

The school where I earned my master's degree had two programs, one online and one in-person. There were several differences, but the most salient one was that the in-person program conferred an academic degree while the online one conferred a professional degree, and the online one had significantly higher tuition.

The fact that many state universities have policies limiting how rapidly academic degree programs' tuition can increase, but not the professional ones, is, I assume, just a coincidence.

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