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MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester

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

#451

Post by hanspeter »

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 needs interaction with nursing and medical staff all the time. They are among the most difficult to quarantine.

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

#452

Post by baron816 »

What’s going to happen during the next pandemic if these measures are successful? I could easily see a few months from now people complaining about how we shut down everything, took a big hit to the economy, and it all turned out to not be a big deal. Next time, some people will say “oh we did all that stuff for the coronavirus and it was just a big hoax. We don’t need to do that stuff again.”

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

#453

Post by anyfoo »

pyuser583 wrote: post #422
chmod775 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. As a rule (non fast-food) restaurants are very expensive in the US compared to most places in Europe. Poland is on the extreme end when it comes to high quality food being extremely cheap. In Berlin it isn't terribly hard to get a healthy and large meal for 4-8 euros at a restaurant for me,…

Really!? Not my experience - was last in Europe 10 years ago - VAT tax made eating out more expensive. I thought it was VAT tax. Everyone said it was VAT tax.

I don't understand this comment. Were you, for example, in Switzerland, Italy, or the Czech Republic, all of which have vastly different prices? (And their own autonomic tax laws, too!)

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

#454

Post by FortCollinsDev »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #418
Larrikin wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a true dorm with a kitchen, the transition apartments owned by the university for juniors and seniors had them but freshman and sophomore dorms I've been in tend to have microwaves and thats it. Its the right decision in my opinion since the largest number of fire alarm evacuations I've had to do were in those dorms because 18 and 19 year olds living away from their parents can't even figure out how t…

burnt popcorn used to be a way to cover the smell of pot.

Used to? :)

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

#455

Post by onei »

dheera wrote: post #449
aatharuv wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What dorms don't have kitchens? Certainly when I went to MIT, most (if not all) dorms at least had kitchenette's, 20 years back. Shared, of course, which is the main problem.

I lived at Simmons Hall my first year and one of my reasons for moving to EC was kitchens. It was plain ridiculous that they were fixated on requiring me to eat dining hall food. Cooking is one of the most basic and healthy life skills anyone can have.

Also, cooking for yourself forces you to learn about the cost of food and how to budget. Sooner or later, you're forced to cook something from scratch because because it's cheaper than takeaway or pre-made alternatives (and generally tastes better).

The flip side is that there's no shortage of UK students who have no clue how to budget, spend all their money on booze and then have £3 to last them two months until the next student load comes in. Perhaps raising the minimum age to purchase alcohol to 21 isn't such a bad idea ...

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

#457

Post by titzer »

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 am teaching a University course right now. Online is absolutely not a substitute for butts-in-seats, work on the blackboard, live questions, etc, type of style that an actual classroom affords. IMHO it is less work for everyone overall, because being in person and taking notes makes students focus and remember better. I think the outcomes are better.

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

#458

Post by ChaseT »

We got similar news at Cornell today, with professors being advised to go online asap but will be forced to in early April which is also when students will be sent home. The problem here is that most upperclassmen live off-campus and can't be forced to disperse. Furthermore, many students are from NYC where they'll visit during spring break and then come back to Ithaca. The atmosphere on campus is very nonchalant; most are more upset by cancelled events than the possibility of encountering the virus.

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

#460

Post by toephu2 »

peter_l_downs wrote: post #341
gumby wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone believes online is an acceptable substitute to a traditional MIT education, but it's a lot better than nothing, and better than continuing the in person teaching. I'm an MIT grad and know the benefits of being on campus. In fact I spent more time in the lab than I did in classes or my dorm and that just isn't possible online. My son's school (Courant) has sent everyone home too, with online subst…

I went to MIT too and with the exception of about three classes, every single in-person class was a waste. The value the school offers is, in order: - the people you meet - the brand name on your resume - the psets and structured guide to learning hard things Notice that the last two still work over Zoom. If I were in the hard sciences this might be different but as a professional Software Engineer, the classes were…

> every single in-person class was a waste.

Hundreds of thousands of people have graduated from MIT. I don't think you can categorically say in-person class is a waste for everyone.

As with many things in life, YMMV. Your one anecdotal experience is not going to be the same for everyone.

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