Ohio University invited all students back to campus for the 2021 Fall Semester, and colleges have begun making plans for in-person classes to be possible.
On March 1, a university-wide email revealed OU’s plans for summer programs and the upcoming Fall Semester, including guidelines for in-person classes.
“We have identified meeting spaces that can be temporarily redeployed as classroom space for some larger courses. Some courses will be divided into smaller sections to allow for face-to-face instruction while meeting public health guidelines,” OU President Duane Nellis said in the email. “We will offer more in-person hybrid courses that include a mix of face-to-face and online elements each week. Some larger classes, such as those with more than 50 students, may continue to be delivered online.”
OU has told faculty that at least 60% of classes will be held in-person throughout all colleges. While OU provides guidelines to follow, each college has its own circumstances and considerations. Jackie Rees Ulmer, dean of the College of Business, emphasized safety for students and faculty.
“Currently, we are working through the process to ensure both the health and safety of our students/faculty and to offer high-quality learning experiences for all of our students,” Ulmer said in an email.
Hans Meyer, an associate director in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, has received many concerns from faculty regarding safety.
“There's a lot of faculty who are concerned that the university hasn't done enough to ensure that if we meet in person again, that there's going to be adequate ventilation, that there's going to be social distancing,” Meyer said. “In past semesters, we've been allowed to request an exemption to teaching in person because we have a health condition, and they just sent that out.”
To address these concerns, Meyer said the Scripps School of Journalism plans to include more hybrid courses next semester. Several lab classes have become rotations where students will be split in half and meet on different days. He said that they are still planning to have classes with more than 50 or 60 students take place online.
“That's just something that we have to do to make sure that we can maintain some physical distance and be safe, even if the vaccines are widely available by then,” Meyer said. “Our labs are built for 20 (people). We're only going to be able to have 10 (people) in our lab spaces.”
The Patton College of Education plans to keep students safe with a mixture of social distancing, the use of face masks, the promotion of handwashing and encouragement for students to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Dean Renee Middleton said.
“This Fall we expect to have greater than 60% of our courses in the traditional face-to-face fashion or significant meaningful portions of our courses with face-to-face modality,” Middleton said in an email. “We have always had fully online courses/programs, so that will not change.”
The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, or HCOM, has been having small graduate classes in person since last summer. It’s vital for the students to have hands-on experiences, Beth Longenecker, dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, said.
In order to stop the spread of COVID-19, the students have been split into pods of eight, Longenecker said. HCOM plans to continue these small groups as more students come to campus for in-person instruction.
“I'm hoping we'll bring some students back to the classroom for their small group sessions more as things open up,” Longenecker said. “I think that some of the labs that we were doing in person…may start to be online because it works just as well, and you can highlight some of those things even better.”
Although many concerns and worries come from students and faculty alike when planning for the Fall Semester, there is still excitement in having face-to-face instruction again.
“Our faculty and I are anxious to be able to interact with students in the traditional manner,” Middleton said in an email. “We miss the face-to-face engagement!”
