A Dry Run at a Socially Distanced Classroom
Anna McLoon and Sarah K. Berke, Inside Higher Ed, August 3, 2020
To prepare for the upcoming fall semester, faculty members in the School of Science at Siena College tested three scenarios for a socially distanced classroom based on published guidelines from the New York State Governor’s Office and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here’s what we learned. We hope faculty at other campuses might consider these findings helpful.
Masks and spacing make it difficult to hear and be heard. When collaborating with physical distancing, noise is a big problem. We found that the groups of four struggled to communicate, and pairs worked best. Group work, in the sense of having more than two people, may not be feasible. We also found that distancing did not affect all voices equally...
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