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

271–280 of 605 posts

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

#271

Post by ryeights »

glofish wrote: post #269

All lost in the upheaval is that you can't "just take" a course in a classroom and make it online - especially not on a two-three days notice. Online courses are surprisingly difficult to get right. Here is what I predict this ad-hoc online teaching will be like: professors will take their slides and put them on a webpage. There you have an online course.

Most classes already post lecture videos, slides, review materials, and problem sets online. Yes, the quality of education will be degraded, but not severely so.

Lab classes are a different matter entirely.

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

#272

Post by kingbirdy »

CydeWeys wrote: post #235
throwaway5752 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MIT has an office of the general counsel and a baker's dozen of high qualified and experienced attorneys (not including supporting staff). It is possible they are violating the law, but it's probably worth assuming they aren't and understanding why. It may be related to the MA governor declaring a state of emergency a couple of hours ago.

People are too quick to try to apply law governing private parties to governments and other similar institutions. Schools and universities can do a lot of things differently than, say, a private company can.

MIT is a private university, not public.

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

#273

Post by voidlogic »

kelnos wrote: post #261
iokanuon wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?

There are certainly restaurants nearby, but not sure I'd call them cheap. I imagine a lot of MIT students don't have the money to eat out every day. And since most dorms don't have any kind of kitchens or cooking implements, buying food from the grocery and cooking isn't really an option. Pre-made meals or other things from grocery stores that don't require cooking could work, but, again, I'd expect some/many student…

At my college all the dorms had a kitchen for residents to use in the basement... is this not normal?

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

#274

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

chrononaut wrote: post #267
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have tens of thousands of people, who all have been in close proximity, now exposing their risk to their family. And if these college students have any elderly family members, that could pose a serious risk. By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be.

> By forcing people to go home, rather than shelter in place, everyone has increased contact with others and public infrastructure where the virus could be. What situation are you referring to that would result in increased contact? This particular movement of students to a different location, often home? Or the long-term housing situation of the students throughout the rest of the semester?

MIT has an international student body. It might even mean that by telling students to go home, you're telling some students to go to CDC Level 3 country.

If there is no outbreak at MIT, having the on-campus students remain on-campus might be preferable to forcing thousands to make their way through airports, buses, and other public infrastructure.

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

#275

Post by CydeWeys »

jimmaswell wrote: post #270
CydeWeys wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are too quick to try to apply law governing private parties to governments and other similar institutions. Schools and universities can do a lot of things differently than, say, a private company can.

Why should they be above the law?

They're not above the laws that apply to them.

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

#276

Post by CydeWeys »

kingbirdy wrote: post #272
CydeWeys wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are too quick to try to apply law governing private parties to governments and other similar institutions. Schools and universities can do a lot of things differently than, say, a private company can.

MIT is a private university, not public.

Doesn't matter. Universities generally are governed by specific laws.

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

#278

Post by beezle »

generationP wrote: post #144

> 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. This is strange. Isn't the travel they are forcing quite possibly a cure worse than the disease? And are they really expecting students (many of them…

Everything I have read is that young people are at the lowest risk, if at all, of even getting COVID-19. Why not leave them in place and let the professors (over a certain age) teach remotely?

Hate to think about how anyone with a lab is going to finish - there's not much remote in that.

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

#279

Post by ngold »

ajross wrote: post #115
r00fus wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unclarity is unsettling. I imagine many will want to fly back to their parents home but may be barred from doing so. Was evicting a large populace a good idea? Aren't there other options?

> The unclarity is unsettling. The situation is unsettling. Realistically MIT made the right broad decision here, I think we can all agree on that. Classrooms (most of them) are an inherently remotable environment. Lecture halls and giant shared dormitories and shared meal facilities are just not a safe environment in a pandemic. They made the right call. Demanding that they do it with perfect bureaucratic finesse is…

Looks like they are ripping off the bandaid, anything else would take more time. Evidently, MIT seems to think they don't have any left.

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

#280

Post by gbear605 »

chrisco255 wrote: post #129
jacquesm wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young adults interact with people who are not young adults. Young adults that need not be ill might end up in an ICU unit that an older person with a weaker immune system could have used to their advantage. As long as there is no vaccine this is going to be a huge exercise in resource allocation.

Wouldn't it make sense for high risk individuals to self-quarantine and for the rest of society to carry on? There may not be a vaccine for at least another year. They've never successfully produced a vaccine for any coronavirus, whether that's SARS or the common cold.

High risk individuals are everyone over sixty, plus anyone younger who has risk factors, such an autoimmune disorder. That’s a huge portion of the population that cannot entirely self-quarantine.
Post reply on HN