Universities Fall 2020

[Merlin]

Obviously right now pretty much all colleges are online for this semester. Most colleges have also made all summer classes online as well (at least all the ones in my state). But for some Universities nowadays the bulk of their summer courses are online anyways. Also, most campuses don't have as many resources, events and campus life during the summer. 

But now the issue is the fall. Do you guys think Universities will back in person come fall? I am not sure how this will play out.

Considering that experts are saying we're going to be dealing with Covid-19 (and physical/social distancing) through the end of 2020 and possibly into 2021, I would hope that traditional B&M colleges are scrambling to develop online and distance learning materials if they want to stay afloat.

When it is safe to be on campus, they will still have the distance learning options available in case they want to retain online courses as a permanent option for remote students. This seems like it would be a great money maker for some of the schools as well since it costs a lot less to host online courses and they can do so in addition to their in-person students. I think the biggest hurdle to some of the colleges is that they just didn't see a need to invest the time and money. Now they have that need.

Plus, a lot of the larger, traditional schools are already participating in the MOOC community, so it shouldn't be a huge stretch to enable students to take those courses for credit.

My wife is a college educator and her school has been hesitant to support online courses. They are dealing with this challenge right now and have moved all their ongoing classes online for the near term. They're using web conferencing software right now, but are also starting to develop purely online content as well. I think they expect to be back in class for the summer session, but they seem to be preparing for a longer run if needs be.