In almost every discipline, prevention is easier and cheaper than remediation.
D&D and the rising pandemic
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Yes, mitigation is better than dealing with a disaster (like this one).
And it keeps getting worse. 210 new cases yesterday, bringing total active cases on campus to 553 and employees up to 4. On campus quarantine space is 35.1% filled. The student positive rate was 13.4%, but I'm guessing a lot of those were folks chosen through contact tracing.
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cbwjm
Seb-wejem
It's a difficult time for universities. Students still want to progress their degree, universities still want to teach their courses. Some can easily make the switch to online, like the majority of arts courses, but others have labs that require equipment that can't be transferred to online.
Still most staff and students here in Auckland seem to be adapting to the changes. Many students prefer lectures to be online, but they do feel like they are missing out with online tutorials, they miss that interaction with lecturers and other students.
Covid has actually lead to changes in teaching at the University of Auckland that will continue post covid with hybrid teaching. We we quite lucky in that we had upgraded to a more robust lecture recording system which has really helped.
Still most staff and students here in Auckland seem to be adapting to the changes. Many students prefer lectures to be online, but they do feel like they are missing out with online tutorials, they miss that interaction with lecturers and other students.
Covid has actually lead to changes in teaching at the University of Auckland that will continue post covid with hybrid teaching. We we quite lucky in that we had upgraded to a more robust lecture recording system which has really helped.
I've been teaching online for a bunch of years now for some courses (usually live studio classroom, synchronous video, and recorded video all from the same lecture), and some of the new tech gotten just this past year has really made it easier!
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Our local schools just announced they will have all kids PreK to 8th grade return to in-person classes. Guess they buckled under the pressure from parents and the rest of the community, because there is 0 backing from science that our county (one of the biggest hit in our state) is anywhere near being in the clear.
Stuff like this is why I doubt our country's resolve to do anything about this.
Is it better elsewhere in the world? Is anyone getting back to "normal" yet? All I've been reading are more outbreaks when people think they're out of the woods.
Stuff like this is why I doubt our country's resolve to do anything about this.
Is it better elsewhere in the world? Is anyone getting back to "normal" yet? All I've been reading are more outbreaks when people think they're out of the woods.
We live in one of the most conservative counties in South Carolina, and all the districts here gave the option of either all virtual or two-days in/three-days virtual (alternating MTh or TF). I'm always amazed (and horrified) when other states in the US try to make us look reasonable by comparison.
Zardnaar
Legend
South Island NZ, or anywhere outside Auckland.
Schools, restaurants etc have been open since May.
Last death was April or May.
Mother in law's birthday tonight, going out to restaurant for it with 4 generations so grandma is coming with us.
It's not normal normal but probably about the closest. No D&D at gamestores but home games are fine.
It's not 100% risk free but they haven't found any Community spread outside Auckland.
There's a financial component to this as well. Housing money is not an inconsiderable chunk of University finances. If students aren't in the dorms, paying for housing, part of the budget goes good bye.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Some Unis are worse than others. We're lucky in that we have a large amount of funding from the government, we make uo additional costs in domestic and international student fees, no international students means we have lost a fair amount. Worse in Australia though, international student fees make up to 40% of their annual budget, many aren't doing so well with large lay-offs.
