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Indiana U Embracing Blend of On-Campus and Online for Fall

In a statement today from President Michael McRobbie, Indiana University announced its plans for resuming fall instruction. "We plan to welcome students back to all our campuses, where instruction will be a blend of in-person and online," McRobbie said. It will make extensive use of technology while preserving as far as possible the most important elements of the in-person experience."

A big part of the plan is the combination of in-person and online learning and a revised academic calendar that eliminates fall and spring breaks, presumably to bypass those periods often devoted to student travel (and the associated exposure risk). The fall semester will begin with both in-person and online courses, but will be online only after Thanksgiving week. The spring semester will be online only for the first few weeks, with in-person instruction resuming in February. In the online-only period between fall and spring, the university has created a new winter session which can be used "to finish fall semester courses, to begin spring semester courses, or to create new intensive courses that use either or both the December and January online periods."

McRobbie added that many individual courses that have traditionally been delivered in-person will now become blended courses. Moving some the instruction online, for example, will provide a solution for large lecture classes that are unable to meet physical distancing requirements.

The university has also planned comprehensive health and safety procedures around cleaning protocols, room capacities, distancing, etc. "These guidelines will continue to evolve along with best practices, and the exact advice for the Fall Semester will be finalized closer to its start," explained McRobbie. "But these can be expected to include the use of masks, continued social distancing, quarantining where necessary, reduced class sizes, modified food service and regular personal symptom checking."

McRobbie's full statement is available here on the university website.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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