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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

#71

Post by chickenpotpie »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #59

I never understood why US universities have so many more rights over their tenants than other landlords. Why do they have the right to terminate what's effectively a rental agreement with only a week's notice?

I don't get it either. It was especially irritating at my university because the dorms were several thousand dollars a semester more expensive than larger, better apartments nearby, but they were the worst landlords I ever had. They would kick me out all the time, while still charging me rent. During finals week you had to be gone within 24 hours of taking your last final or be fined. If schools in the US aren't going to be free, they should at least be held to the same laws that other institutions that provide the same services are.

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

#72

Post by enitihas »

enitihas wrote: post #7

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

Ok, as mentioned by another commenter, they seem to have thought about these issues. Quoting here

- International students who have concerns that they would not be allowed to return to MIT due to visa issues.

- International students who will have difficulty returning to their home country if it has been hard-hit by COVID-19.

- 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

#73

Post by dumbfoundded »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #59

I never understood why US universities have so many more rights over their tenants than other landlords. Why do they have the right to terminate what's effectively a rental agreement with only a week's notice?

I have a hard time believing this is legal. Like 50% of MIT guys live in fraternities. At least my fraternity was owned by the alumni board so I don't know how they can force people out. Especially for the Boston-side fraternities, I can't imagine them enforcing this.

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

#74

Post by lgessler »

enitihas wrote: post #53
petschge wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why should there be extra effort for online classes? My university had a course where an external professor would deliver a mixed online/offline course. Videos were available on institute website. Professor would hold a class every week to go through that week's contents and clarify student doubts. This saved a ton of effort on the professor's part.

For one thing, profs often teach some classes repeatedly, which means they dont have to put substantial effort into planning for subsequent offerings. If the planned content is somehow unsuitable for a different medium of delivery, this would take some planning that they weren't expecting at the beginning of the semester.

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

#75

Post by viraptor »

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…

> If courses being taught online is an acceptable substitute, why have caps on admission at all?

Mit was probably the first offering serious online courses with recognised certification. You can do their micromaster if you want:

https://micromasters.mit.edu/

So it's not like they don't offer the option. They also published opencourseware if you don't need the paper itself.

I'm not saying they don't provide value locally, but they do push for online education themselves and literally provide you resources for free.

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

#76

Post by smallnamespace »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #59

I never understood why US universities have so many more rights over their tenants than other landlords. Why do they have the right to terminate what's effectively a rental agreement with only a week's notice?

Many universities are either municipalities in their own right, or have delegated municipal powers from the city government.

Universities are their own small towns - they provide food, housing, have police forces, a large staff, etc.

Put it the other way around, does it make more sense for a city official to be calling the shots, when campuses have their own special context?

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

#77

Post by samatman »

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…

Most of the value of an elite education is signaling: it proves the student had what it takes both to get into MIT, and to graduate.

If MIT switched to an online-only format, that would erode the value of the latter (which, remember, is social proof, not something which is notoriously rational), while open enrollment would obliterate the former.

A semester of remote teaching won't damage the brand.

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

#78

Post by petschge »

enitihas wrote: post #53
petschge wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why should there be extra effort for online classes? My university had a course where an external professor would deliver a mixed online/offline course. Videos were available on institute website. Professor would hold a class every week to go through that week's contents and clarify student doubts. This saved a ton of effort on the professor's part.

Because nothing is set up for it yet.

There is a reserved scheduled class room for the class, but there is no organized zoom meeting yet (or maybe not use zoom after all?).

There is a mail box to drop of home work assignments, but nobody has figured out where students should email things for grading (the prof, the TA or a function account?).

The prof has a set of notes that (s)he writes onto the white board, but not a set of slides to be emailed out. Or might have electronic slides, but they contain annotation that should not be sent out to students.

Everybody has to figure out how to make sure that 200 students can join the zoom session, but have their mic muted. And know how to unmute when they want to ask a question.

Exams for the mid terms might be printed but now need to be (e)mailed. And how do you prevent cheating in an exam that was meant to be taken under supervision with pen(cil) and paper only. Of course you can create an open-book exam where google doesn't help, but that is extra effort. And does not prevent collusion between students.

Somebody need to figure out how to replace lab courses.

And the list goes on. All of that can be fixed. And after a couple of semesters an online class might be no more (or possibly even less, but that is not proven) work than the current offline course. But switching in the middle of a semester with ideally no downtime IS a lot of extra effort.

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

#79

Post by dang »

loufe wrote: post #23

Can the headline be improved? I opened it as the title gives no impression of being temporary or linked to COVID-19.

I've added "for the rest of the semester", which is explicit about being temporary and I suppose implies enough about covid-19.

(Submitted title was "MIT moves all classes online, requires undergraduates to leave campus".)

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

#80

Post by akhilcacharya »

909832 wrote: post #60
akhilcacharya wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are probably only a handful of MIT undergrads that are actually underprivileged per year (its unlikely enough with a middle class upbringing). I doubt this will be much of an issue, at least as much of an issue as it would be if my alma mater did this. They'll be fine.

Some data on the economic background of MIT students: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...

This is interesting data I hadn't seen, thanks. Intuitively its a little bewildering to see the Median family income of someone from MIT be around the same as someone from UNC (a school I got into) - I wonder how the median incomes of international admits factor in.

The bottom 20% of US incomes is between $0 to $25k a year for a household - call me a skeptic but I think its unlikely ~58 (938 x 6.2%) people came from backgrounds like that in America,

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