Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

web.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 605 posts

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

#31

Post by piannucci »

aquova wrote: post #22

I can see why the university is taking the actions that it is doing, but on the other hand, if I were still and undergrad, and suddenly told that I had to pack up all my stuff and move within the next 3 days, I can only imagine the chaos that entails. Every student on campus now has to suddenly not only find a place to stay, but also a way to move everything on short notice.

I think the idea is you leave stuff in your dorm room that you don't need right away, but yeah. Wow.

(btw some of the MIT dorms have storage space in the basement)

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

#33

Post by rifung »

colechristensen wrote: post #11
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.

> We are getting to the point where lectures should be mandated to be recorded and put into the public domain

Does that really make sense? I thought MIT was a private institution. The research is often publicly funded but I don't believe that's the case for the tuition.

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

#35

Post by prostheticvamp »

pkaye wrote: post #21
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.

Do you mean less privileged MIT students? I though MIT is pretty good about giving scholarships and grants to those who are admitted. If your family income is below some threshold they fully cover the costs.

That doesn’t mean they have somewhere they can go home and still commit to studying.

Some folks will go home to places with their own bedrooms, or even a family study, or a good local library.

Some will go home to nothing like anything of the above.

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

#36

Post by the_svd_doctor »

piannucci wrote: post #31
aquova wrote: post #22

I can see why the university is taking the actions that it is doing, but on the other hand, if I were still and undergrad, and suddenly told that I had to pack up all my stuff and move within the next 3 days, I can only imagine the chaos that entails. Every student on campus now has to suddenly not only find a place to stay, but also a way to move everything on short notice.

I think the idea is you leave stuff in your dorm room that you don't need right away, but yeah. Wow. (btw some of the MIT dorms have storage space in the basement)

Ar Harvard (same thing happening) from what I’ve read on their website, you need to get rid of all your stuff like in an usual move out.

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

#37

Post by teachrdan »

pkaye wrote: post #21
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.

Do you mean less privileged MIT students? I though MIT is pretty good about giving scholarships and grants to those who are admitted. If your family income is below some threshold they fully cover the costs.

I think the point was, what happens to working class or poor students who don't have a stable home--with broadband, adequate study space, food, etc--to go back to? Those needs were covered by MIT while the students were on campus; will they be covered by MIT now that students are forced to leave? If not, it seems like this is a ham-fisted response that ignores the needs of students who don't come from comfortable backgrounds.

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

#39

Post by pkaye »

whymauri wrote: post #28
pkaye wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean less privileged MIT students? I though MIT is pretty good about giving scholarships and grants to those who are admitted. If your family income is below some threshold they fully cover the costs.

Flights may be reimbursed to go home for low-income students, but not all students have a safe home to go back to. A common issue could be homophobia or transphobia. Some students are also highly reliant on on-campus jobs for income that makes gives them a living wage. This whiplash relocation may make finding new sources of income really hard for certain geographies/students. The list of complications just goes on..…

Okay didn't realize they have to leave the dorm also when I first read it. But it looks like they can make exceptions for...

> Students who do not have a home to go to, or for whom going home would be unsafe given the circumstances of their home country or homelife.

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

#40

Post by petschge »

enitihas wrote: post #14
BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am at a (small) academic meeting right now and all of the professors in attendance fear how much extra effort this move to online-only classes will be and how it is going to cut into their research time.
Post reply on HN