Cal State to cancel most in-person classes, move to virtual learning for Fall 2020

[geist1223]

All 3 of my children have served and 1 of them is still in the Navy. Oldest son took 4 years off college after sophomore year and spent it in the Air Force. Got great computer training and now has own firm riding Apps. Just wrapped up a big job with Samsung. 2nd son did 4 years in the Navy after college. Had to pay back the NROTC Scholarship that enabled him to attend Harvard. Has worked for firms Goldman Sachs and Black Rock since he got out. So his 4 years did not have a negative effect on his future. Daughter is still in the Navy. Originally went in to pay back the Navy for scholarship that paid for her 4 year post graduate PHD. She is a Clinical Psychologist in the Medical Service Corps. So the Military can be a great option. All three enjoyed/enjoy their military service.

Has she thought about ROTC as a way of helping to pay for college. Just be careful about applying for State Schools. Oldest son was accepted at OSU and that is where the Navy assigned him to attend. But he turned down them down and went to Caltech. So 2nd son did not apply to any State Universities and ended of with choice of Harvard or Rice with NROTC Scholarship.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IMO...Just as Covid is accelerating trends such as remote work, moving education online for certain classes and programs is here to stay. Higher education has been ripe for disruption given ever-increasing costs and burden on families. By offering online, students could take classes from the best professors across the country vs. whoever is available at your local college. Some local professors are fantastic, some are not.

The top privates won't do this because they need to justify their high fees. There are many parents willing to pay those fees for the brand and on-campus experience. They also have considerable research and endowments to sustain them. This was the way they operated in the early 1900s and will be the way they will continue to operate.

OTOH, I would expect the public universities and junior colleges will move toward online models to reduce the employment and capital costs of operating each college campus. California alone has 115 junior college campuses, and 23 state college campuses (not including the University of California System). Consider the cost savings to taxpayers of consolidating campuses and enabling your highest rated professors to teach hundreds if not thousands of students online for English 101 live and with lecture recordings, augmenting with many low cost local TAs for individual student support, grading and interactive discussion. Imagine the cost savings to taxpayers of consolidating administrative overhead, reducing tenured professors, and eliminating building maintenance at many of these college campuses.

States will likely keep the top campuses such as University of Calif. (Berkeley, UCLA), U of Mich, Ann Arbor intact for top students because those campuses also conduct research and have strong alumni support which brings financial benefit to the universities.

Zoom has become well adopted and has changed the game making for a much more interactive experience. By next year many professors will have their classes adjusted for online. The fact that states will need to tighten their belts to pay for unprecedented Covid unemployment expenses will drive this trend. Many parents are wiping out college savings to survive and cannot afford college expenses. Making college affordable may be what puts online learning over the edge because the current model of copying Ivys for 4 years of on-campus experience for a broad set of students is unsustainable.

 

[Monykalyn]

I'm all for "gap years". It took me 9 different universities (long story) and 15 years to get my degree. On-off worked great for me...

George

I definitely think we will see more "non-traditional" approaches to a degree. IMHO that may be a very good thing to have diverse experiences, ages etc in a class.

Making college affordable may be what puts online learning over the edge because the current model of copying Ivys for 4 years of on-campus experience for a broad set of students is unsustainable.

I can definitely see a move towards more online-and that's not a bad thing in most cases-however-professors can't monitor thousands and thousands of kids in a class. Just not gonna happen so class sizes can't really get super big. Upper level classes also rely on TA's to help with classes/labs just monitor and teach the huge classes they already have, so now those kids-who might have fees waived for being a TA-are out of a job and their lessened college costs. Everyone thinks online classes are always cheaper too-um NO-a couple of my daughter's online classes were MORE per credit hour with extra "usage" fees to access sights. So as a cost savings it is absolutely not a sure thing. And this once again puts the economically challenged far behind-if they don't have reliable internet or a safe place to work then taking away onsite campuses double screws them. It is very easy to forget there is a very large portion of our country that is already at a disadvantage and it is NOT a matter of "pulling up the bootstraps". These kids who would have been awarded scholarships and on site campus experience (room and board, access to library with free computer use, onsight counseling & tutor services etc) cannot be duplicated on-line.
It's easy for us who've been through college and now are OK with being holed up at home for months on end to say "oh just stay home and skip the whole college experience"-if we were really truly honest with ourselves we'd not want to do that either at their age...I know I wouldn't.

 

[geist1223]

Oh I forgot to mention the National Guard. They have some great programs to help pay for college while you preform your Service. After completion of Basic Training and Specialized MOS Training most service is one weekend a month and 2 weeks sometime during the year - normally summer. This is as an enlisted person. However you have to be aware that your Unit could be called to active duty for a natural disaster. This can really interrupt your college. When Iraq and Afghanistan first started many National Guard Units in Oregon were called to active duty. This interrupted many people's college. Those in ROTC were not called up and got to finish their college.

 

[MrockStar]

Oh I forgot to mention the National Guard. They have some great programs to help pay for college while you preform your Service. After completion of Basic Training and Specialized MOS Training most service is one weekend a month and 2 weeks sometime during the year - normally summer. This is as an enlisted person. However you have to be aware that your Unit could be called to active duty for a natural disaster. This can really interrupt your college. When Iraq and Afghanistan first started many National Guard Units in Oregon were called to active duty. This interrupted many people's college. Those in ROTC were not called up and got to finish their college.

Yes, The Guard is a very good choice for many. 10 yrs Air Guard myself. Probably the best overall experience of my 38 year Military career.

 

[bbodb1]

I just discussed this with my daughter

What was her reaction, @Cornell ?

 

[CalGalTraveler]

FYI...the private university where I teach part-time notified us that we need to be prepared to teach hybrid (both in-person and remote) this fall. A big factor is that there are international students who may not be able to return to campus by the beginning of the fall semester due to international travel restrictions.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I am a person who needs the classroom to learn. I have a tough time paying attention to anything on the computer. I loved college, it was a great time for me. I enjoyed my study groups a lot, and I loved the group work we did as a model for teaching in classrooms (English/History secondary level). I had wonderful professors who sat down with us one-on-one with an appointment. Some of them are gone now, and it's sad for me because they were great mentors. As I mentioned before, "when an old person dies, it's like a library burned." I believe it's a saying from the Asian culture.

 

[Monykalyn]

FYI...the private university where I teach part-time notified us that we need to be prepared to teach hybrid (both in-person and remote) this fall. A big factor is that there are international students who may not be able to return to campus by the beginning of the fall semester due to international travel restrictions.

I think most schools are going to be much better prepared for online if needed. That will make a huge difference in quality, hopefully easier on the instructors as well!

 

[mentalbreak]

Oh I forgot to mention the National Guard. They have some great programs to help pay for college while you preform your Service. After completion of Basic Training and Specialized MOS Training most service is one weekend a month and 2 weeks sometime during the year - normally summer. This is as an enlisted person. However you have to be aware that your Unit could be called to active duty for a natural disaster. This can really interrupt your college. When Iraq and Afghanistan first started many National Guard Units in Oregon were called to active duty. This interrupted many people's college. Those in ROTC were not called up and got to finish their college.

One of my son’s friends is a senior who has joined the Air National Guard. He is very excited about his future, both the technical training program he qualified for and the future college support.