This article was written by Jenny Fang and Quentin Jimenez.
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect schooling, members of the Stevens administration and other college professionals have been tasked with deciding whether classes should be in person, fully remote, or a third option: a hybrid learning environment.
A hybrid learning approach consists of a combination of online and in-person classroom interaction. This model has been greatly explored especially over the pandemic timeline in many spaces, from primary-school learning environments to big tech companies such as Microsoft. The demand for convenient workspaces continues to increase with both companies and workers embracing greater flexibility and productivity at work. This includes professors at Stevens, some of whom have implemented hybrid learning into their courses for the spring semester.
Following recommended guidelines as well as NJ quarantine and isolation requirements, Stevens made the decision to hold classes remotely on the Zoom platform for the duration of the first two weeks into the Spring 2022 semester until scheduled in-person classes resumed on Monday, January 31. In a separate later email confirming that campus operations would resume in-person on January 31, Stevens listed “Academic Flexibility” under its “plans for a safe and healthy return to campus,” emphasizing the need for flexibility for both students and faculty. In the case that a student “exhibits symptoms of COVID-19 or the flu; tests positive for COVID-19, the flu or another illness that requires them to be out of class for more than two days; or cannot attend class due to a short-term disability, as approved by the Office of Disability Services,” students may obtain video recordings of class lectures by filling out a form on the myStevens website.
This comes after a tumultuous two-year mark of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with the appearance of the Omicron variant. In Fall 2020, the university released StevensFlex, the university’s first hybrid learning approach. Students had the option of attending class synchronously in-person or online, with all class participants logging onto Zoom to facilitate interaction between those in both environments. More recently, for the 2021-2022 school year, Stevens introduced its Staff Flexible Work Arrangement Pilot program, which aims to adapt to the changing needs of staff members, not including faculty through this phase of the pandemic. Stevens has listed five key objectives in this program which include the university’s ability to “respond quickly to unexpected future events and promote post-pandemic health and safety” and “maintain student centricity focus.”
Stevens is not incorporating a hybrid learning environment at this time. However, the pandemic is evolving and may call for a different approach in the future.
New Jersey as a whole has recently seen a large shift towards online learning after the increase in cases due to the holiday season and the Omicron variant. Less than 10% of New Jersey school districts remained fully in person after the holiday season, with most choosing to either continue with the hybrid learning environment or move temporarily online, 45% and 40% respectively. These closures come after a school year in which most districts have avoided remote learning, with only a handful of schools going online before the start of the new year. Most of these recent closures within the state remain temporary, and a large majority of districts expect to resume in-person learning before February.
The situation across the Hudson in New York City is a different story. While it followed the same trends as New Jersey did in the fall of 2021, the recent wave of cases in the city has caused public schooling to come to a standstill. The teacher shortage has only been heightened by the virus, causing most classes to become study halls as teachers call out sick. As one student described in a viral reddit post, most students did not come to school, even though classes were in person. Most chose to either stay home for health reasons, or because almost all of their classes had been cancelled. The little instruction they did have during the day was constantly interrupted by teachers handing out tests before class, and students testing positive before class ended.
This leaves administrators wondering which option to choose: move schools online and further disrupt the learning of students who have never had a normal year of high school, or remain in person, risking the health and safety of students and staff, while still endangering the education of American students.
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