During the first week of the spring semester, civil engineering freshman Carter Alphonso arrived at the French House for his first in-person class on LSU’s campus. He found one other student waiting in the room. They quickly realized the professor had quietly announced a switch from the originally scheduled in-person class to an online-only format.
“It was a little bit of a slap in the face,” Alphonso said.
Before the spring semester began, the university confirmed that campus would operate similarly to the previous fall 2020 semester with regard to capacity restrictions and class formats. As detailed in the Roadmap to Fall, classes of 100 or more students would be held online, classes of 11 to 99 could either operate online or in a large room and classes of 10 or fewer students should be held in-person unless the faculty member specifically arranged otherwise with the University.
Several students quickly discovered that professors were making decisions about class format regardless of the roadmap’s guidelines. The students’ university-issued personal schedules marked one or more of their classes as in-person, but days before the semester began, professors privately announced to the students that the class would operate fully online.
Executive Vice President & Provost Stacia Haynie said in order for a professor to alter the modality of a course, they must alert the provost’s office and gain approval from their respective department.
“Once faculty locked in their preferred modality, they were not given the discretion to change their modality,” Haynie said. “The expectation is that faculty would adhere to the modality that was selected prior to the beginning of the semester and reflected in the course offerings.”
In Alphonso’s class of 23 students, he said the room was arranged for proper social distancing and could have been safely operated in with masks and regular sanitation. He said the professor gave COVID-19 as a “blanket reason” for switching the class to Zoom, although she did not give any clear indication of why that prohibited her from operating in-person.
“We’re obviously getting a lower-quality education than we’re paying for,” Alphonso said. “I’m having to put in about three times the normal effort compared to when I took classes last year. Especially when I paid and planned to be in an in-person class, it’s unfair.”
While scheduling classes this semester, students could see beforehand if the class would be held in person or online. While some were listed as “TBA,” which typically meant the class was asynchronous, most were determined before scheduling began based on how many students were allowed to register for the class and the preferred modality of the instructor.
Ogden Honors College Communications Coordinator Jordyn Warren said Alphonso’s class was never intended to be in-person, and it being listed as such on the course schedule was a technical error. As of Feb. 7, the course is still officially labeled as in-person.
“After looking into this, the course being listed as in-person face-to-face was an error,” Ogden Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle said. “I’m sorry if students enrolled in the course and were surprised it would be offered remotely. But it’s a terrific course and I’m excited to be offering it, regardless.”
Haynie noted that once the schedule booklet is confirmed and open to students, changes typically are not allowed because the university does not want students to sign up for a class under false pretenses.
“We typically do not allow changes to course modalities, days or times after students have already started to register, as students enroll in courses with those very expectations in mind,” Haynie said.
“It’s promising something and giving another; it’s lying,” Alphonso said.
English junior Cameron Mathews had a similar experience to Alphonso’s and said that the change in her schedule made her question LSU’s commitment to their quality of education.
“We get emails [from the university], and it’s like, ‘we’re doing everything we can and we know everyone’s scared,’ but honestly, I meet very few people who are scared,” Mathews said. “I meet very few people who do not want answers just as much as I do. I just wish they would be honest and upfront. I don’t need to hear the same things over and over.”
In this class specifically, Mathews said her learning ability is significantly diminished by having to operate in an online format.
“I think it’s all about being immersive with foreign language, and it’s very difficult to do that online,” Mathews said. “It’s a weird dynamic.”
There are eight students in Mathew’s class, and per the roadmap’s guidelines, it should be operating in person as usual. On her schedule, it was University-approved to do so.
“Do I think that this is becoming complacent? Definitely,” Mathews said. “In our class specifically, there’s a lot of people who don’t show up at all. It’s uncomfortable because [the professor] doesn’t really care. If we were in class maybe he would say something.”
In previous semesters, attendance was mandatory in that professor’s classroom. Since the class moved online, their grading criterion has completely shifted, and other students say they don’t believe they’re learning as much because of it.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Troy Blanchard suggested that the department was still under the impression that Mathew’s class was operating in person, as it was scheduled to at the beginning of the semester. The professor did not secure department approval to move the course online.
Pre-medical nutrition science sophomore Mattie Robison said she was both surprised and disappointed to find that her class would not be held in-person as scheduled.
“While I understand that people are concerned about the health of their friends and family members, I don’t think that’s a decision that should be made by an individual teacher when administration clearly decides that students are allowed to be in-person and that it’s safe,” Robison said. “I feel like that’s a selfish decision that is not up to the teacher, [especially when] there are already such strict guidelines to protect students.”
Robison felt that professors were robbing students of the in-person experience that they are paying thousands of dollars for by arbitrarily overruling the University’s guidelines.
“I could go to Kahn Academy or YouTube and get the same kind of stuff that they’re posting [for free],” Robison said.
Mass Communication Assistant Professor Ruth Moon Mari said that two weeks into the fall 2020 semester, she transitioned her hybrid in-person media ethics class to an online format after gaining approval from the late mass communication dean Martin Johnson. She listed several logistical concerns that caused her to do so.
“With all of the COVID safety restrictions, there were a couple of concerns that I realized would be really challenging as soon as I started teaching,” Moon said.
One of the concerns, Moon said, is that there would always be at least a few students unable to attend class due to quarantine or not passing the daily symptom checker. Because of this, she would have needed to provide a way for those students to access class as it was happening.
“That seemed logistically challenging and I wasn’t sure how to accomplish it in a way that would provide a good teaching and learning experience for both groups of students,” Moon said.
Additionally, Moon wasn’t sure how her typical discussion-based class would operate in light of the six-feet social distancing guidelines. Because of these two concerns, she shifted the modality of the class to online, where they met synchronously over Zoom for the remainder of the semester.
Moon said she can certainly understand why students would feel blindsided that their classes were suddenly moved to online after registering for an in-person course, but there are many factors professors are facing behind-the-scenes that could have warranted the shift.
“We’re adapting to the same unknown circumstances that students are,” Moon said. “The academy is a slow place that is not used to a lot of change, so adapting takes a long time for a lot of professors.”
“It was a little bit of a slap in the face,” Alphonso said.
Before the spring semester began, the university confirmed that campus would operate similarly to the previous fall 2020 semester with regard to capacity restrictions and class formats. As detailed in the Roadmap to Fall, classes of 100 or more students would be held online, classes of 11 to 99 could either operate online or in a large room and classes of 10 or fewer students should be held in-person unless the faculty member specifically arranged otherwise with the University.
Several students quickly discovered that professors were making decisions about class format regardless of the roadmap’s guidelines. The students’ university-issued personal schedules marked one or more of their classes as in-person, but days before the semester began, professors privately announced to the students that the class would operate fully online.
Executive Vice President & Provost Stacia Haynie said in order for a professor to alter the modality of a course, they must alert the provost’s office and gain approval from their respective department.
“Once faculty locked in their preferred modality, they were not given the discretion to change their modality,” Haynie said. “The expectation is that faculty would adhere to the modality that was selected prior to the beginning of the semester and reflected in the course offerings.”
In Alphonso’s class of 23 students, he said the room was arranged for proper social distancing and could have been safely operated in with masks and regular sanitation. He said the professor gave COVID-19 as a “blanket reason” for switching the class to Zoom, although she did not give any clear indication of why that prohibited her from operating in-person.
“We’re obviously getting a lower-quality education than we’re paying for,” Alphonso said. “I’m having to put in about three times the normal effort compared to when I took classes last year. Especially when I paid and planned to be in an in-person class, it’s unfair.”
While scheduling classes this semester, students could see beforehand if the class would be held in person or online. While some were listed as “TBA,” which typically meant the class was asynchronous, most were determined before scheduling began based on how many students were allowed to register for the class and the preferred modality of the instructor.
Ogden Honors College Communications Coordinator Jordyn Warren said Alphonso’s class was never intended to be in-person, and it being listed as such on the course schedule was a technical error. As of Feb. 7, the course is still officially labeled as in-person.
“After looking into this, the course being listed as in-person face-to-face was an error,” Ogden Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle said. “I’m sorry if students enrolled in the course and were surprised it would be offered remotely. But it’s a terrific course and I’m excited to be offering it, regardless.”
Haynie noted that once the schedule booklet is confirmed and open to students, changes typically are not allowed because the university does not want students to sign up for a class under false pretenses.
“We typically do not allow changes to course modalities, days or times after students have already started to register, as students enroll in courses with those very expectations in mind,” Haynie said.
“It’s promising something and giving another; it’s lying,” Alphonso said.
English junior Cameron Mathews had a similar experience to Alphonso’s and said that the change in her schedule made her question LSU’s commitment to their quality of education.
“We get emails [from the university], and it’s like, ‘we’re doing everything we can and we know everyone’s scared,’ but honestly, I meet very few people who are scared,” Mathews said. “I meet very few people who do not want answers just as much as I do. I just wish they would be honest and upfront. I don’t need to hear the same things over and over.”
In this class specifically, Mathews said her learning ability is significantly diminished by having to operate in an online format.
“I think it’s all about being immersive with foreign language, and it’s very difficult to do that online,” Mathews said. “It’s a weird dynamic.”
There are eight students in Mathew’s class, and per the roadmap’s guidelines, it should be operating in person as usual. On her schedule, it was University-approved to do so.
“Do I think that this is becoming complacent? Definitely,” Mathews said. “In our class specifically, there’s a lot of people who don’t show up at all. It’s uncomfortable because [the professor] doesn’t really care. If we were in class maybe he would say something.”
In previous semesters, attendance was mandatory in that professor’s classroom. Since the class moved online, their grading criterion has completely shifted, and other students say they don’t believe they’re learning as much because of it.
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Troy Blanchard suggested that the department was still under the impression that Mathew’s class was operating in person, as it was scheduled to at the beginning of the semester. The professor did not secure department approval to move the course online.
Pre-medical nutrition science sophomore Mattie Robison said she was both surprised and disappointed to find that her class would not be held in-person as scheduled.
“While I understand that people are concerned about the health of their friends and family members, I don’t think that’s a decision that should be made by an individual teacher when administration clearly decides that students are allowed to be in-person and that it’s safe,” Robison said. “I feel like that’s a selfish decision that is not up to the teacher, [especially when] there are already such strict guidelines to protect students.”
Robison felt that professors were robbing students of the in-person experience that they are paying thousands of dollars for by arbitrarily overruling the University’s guidelines.
“I could go to Kahn Academy or YouTube and get the same kind of stuff that they’re posting [for free],” Robison said.
Mass Communication Assistant Professor Ruth Moon Mari said that two weeks into the fall 2020 semester, she transitioned her hybrid in-person media ethics class to an online format after gaining approval from the late mass communication dean Martin Johnson. She listed several logistical concerns that caused her to do so.
“With all of the COVID safety restrictions, there were a couple of concerns that I realized would be really challenging as soon as I started teaching,” Moon said.
One of the concerns, Moon said, is that there would always be at least a few students unable to attend class due to quarantine or not passing the daily symptom checker. Because of this, she would have needed to provide a way for those students to access class as it was happening.
“That seemed logistically challenging and I wasn’t sure how to accomplish it in a way that would provide a good teaching and learning experience for both groups of students,” Moon said.
Additionally, Moon wasn’t sure how her typical discussion-based class would operate in light of the six-feet social distancing guidelines. Because of these two concerns, she shifted the modality of the class to online, where they met synchronously over Zoom for the remainder of the semester.
Moon said she can certainly understand why students would feel blindsided that their classes were suddenly moved to online after registering for an in-person course, but there are many factors professors are facing behind-the-scenes that could have warranted the shift.
“We’re adapting to the same unknown circumstances that students are,” Moon said. “The academy is a slow place that is not used to a lot of change, so adapting takes a long time for a lot of professors.”
