Add as a preferred source on Google


Crowdsourced Document Tracks Institutions' COVID Strategies for 2022

COVID-19

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across the United States, colleges and universities face a familiar dilemma: Will COVID force a pivot to online when classes begin in the new year? A new project kicked off by futurist Bryan Alexander aims to crowdsource the answer to that question in a shared Google spreadsheet.

A number of institutions have already announced plans to start January classes online, including Harvard University, the New School, Stanford University, the University of Denver, the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Alexander reported in a blog post. "Each has its own timing and other campus restrictions, but all greet the new year with online teaching and learning," he noted. Other universities have publicly stated that they are still considering the online vs. on-campus options.

The Google spreadsheet invites anyone with information and sources to list an institution's name, whether it's on a quarter or semester system, and its COVID strategy, along with associated documentation links. It is meant to serve as a living document, updated in real time as colleges and universities respond to evolving circumstances.

"The more eyes on the problem the better," wrote Alexander. "We can update the Sheet as events transpire and we learning about them, amending previous entries as things change. People can add new categories of information and ways of displaying them as you all have time. Hopefully we can all learn from each other."

About the Author

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

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • three glowing stacks of tech-themed icons

    Research: LLMs Need a Translation Layer to Launch Complex Cyber Attacks

    While large language models have been touted for their potential in cybersecurity, they are still far from executing real-world cyber attacks — unless given help from a new kind of abstraction layer, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Anthropic.

  • Hand holding a stylus over a tablet with futuristic risk management icons

    Why Universities Are Ransomware's Easy Target: Lessons from the 23% Surge

    Academic environments face heightened risk because their collaboration-driven environments are inherently open, making them more susceptible to attack, while the high-value research data they hold makes them an especially attractive target. The question is not if this data will be targeted, but whether universities can defend it swiftly enough against increasingly AI-powered threats.

  • magnifying glass revealing the letters AI

    New Tool Tracks Unauthorized AI Usage Across Organizations

    DevOps platform provider JFrog is taking aim at a growing challenge for enterprises: users deploying AI tools without IT approval.