Remote learning is back at CSUCI




 

Jacob Jenkins isn’t a fan of teaching university classes remotely. Like many professors, he’d much rather be interacting with students in person.

The Cal State Channel Islands communications professor thought online classes would only be needed for a couple of weeks when lockdowns were first imposed nearly two years ago.

“We shifted suddenly, dramatically. I had heard rumblings of this COVID thing but didn’t fully understand it,” he said. “I missed seeing students in person.”

Jenkins was relieved when in-person instruction started back up last year but he now has a sense of déjà vu.

That’s because university leaders recently announced that the first two weeks of instruction for the spring semester starting Jan. 22 will be mostly virtual.

Even though Jenkins was disappointed to hear the semester would start with remote instruction, he understands why it’s happening.

“I think it was the smart decision and the responsible decision. The administration is taking all the information into account, moving forward and erring on the side of caution,” he said.

In addition to starting the semester with mostly virtual classes, university officials have updated the campus vaccination policy.

Vaccinations were already required for all but a few exempted students. Now the date for a required booster shot has been moved up. The booster deadline was previously Feb. 28 for eligible students. The deadline is now Feb. 7 to coincide with the resumption of in-person classes.

CSUCI interim president Richard Yao said in a statement to students that there were good reasons for the decision to return to mostly virtual instruction. He cited the surge of infections from the Omicron variant that’s expected to peak around the same time the semester was set to begin.

“This projected surge follows immediately upon the scheduled return to campus of students and faculty—many of whom will have just returned from extended social gatherings and travels,” Yao said. “That we will see an uptick in positive cases at the start of the semester is very likely, given this post-holiday timing and the Omicron variant’s high rate of transmissibility.”

CSUCI provost Mitch Avila said instructors should be able to switch easily to virtual learning since they already have practice.

“Because of our past experience, we’re able to do this pretty quickly. People know now how to incorporate that into their courses,” he said. “From the point of view of instruction, it’s a fairly easy lift, and it’s not going to be too disruptive.”

About 25 classes will be held in person, mostly in the performing arts and other disciplines that are challenging to teach virtually. Because it’s the beginning of the semester, most science labs will start virtually since the first few weeks typically involve orientation, Avila said.

Leaders of each of the 23 Cal State campuses made individual decisions about in-person or virtual instruction for the spring semester, and it’s not a system-wide mandate to hold virtual classes. Avila said only a handful of the state universities opted for in-person instruction, including Chico, Humboldt, and Monterey Bay.

He said it will not be like the disruption caused in 2020 when all students were ordered off-campus, since the dorms will still be in use and the campus will not be shut down.

“When we first did it everybody went home and hunkered down and didn’t go out. That’s not what’s going on now. We’re just delaying in-person instruction to let the numbers die down, but it’s not a lockdown situation,” he said.

Avila said he’s hopeful there will not be any more interruptions to in-person instruction after students return to class and the year progresses. New COVID treatments and increasing vaccination numbers should help end the pandemic, he said.

He said students are resilient and will adjust.

“ People understand, and we’ve heard from our community that they appreciate that we made this choice,” he said.