CHAPEL HILL (March 17, 2021) – UNC System schools learned some hard lessons when they tried to resume classes in person last fall. But they’re now applying those lessons, UNC System Peter Hans says in the accompanying video.
“We are far better prepared for the spring semester than the fall. We know more, we’ve learned more, we’re applying those lessons,” Hans says.
The fall semester was challenging, he says, especially for three larger campuses that had to shift to all-remote instruction. But 14 of the UNC System’s 17 institutions kept students on campus, and Hans notes that some had smaller case counts than their surrounding communities.
The three campuses that had to shut down last fall – UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State University and East Carolina University – are applying the lessons they learned in the fall: Robust testing, reduced density in residence halls and increased health and safety checks for students, faculty and staff, Hans says.
“I’m so proud of the way everybody has responded,” he says. “They’ve risen to the occasion. It hasn’t been easy.
“We’ve made it through this season of hardship. We can see the end in sight. And no one will be more pleased to get there than myself.”
Art Padilla says
I hope one of the “lessons learned” concerns the challenges and shortcomings of online instruction. To do online well one needs at the very least the confluence of:
a) modern and reliable technology (“can you see/hear me now?”),
b) great time investments by professors to include videos, podcasts, blogs, and effective visuals, and
c) students committed to an online process.
Useful online courses worth the tuition and fees charged for them are expensive, challenging to develop and maintain, and require devoted and knowledgeable “techie” support.