Staff, students at UW Tacoma prepare for online classes during coronavirus outbreak
Gabrielle Nunez feels the decision to cancel face-to-face classes at University of Washington campuses for the rest of the quarter is a safe approach.
A 19-year-old sophomore at UW Tacoma, Nunez already takes her own precautions against COVID-19. She wears a mask while traveling to and from classes on campus. The mask was a going-away present from her family in Olympia.
“Before I came to campus, my whole family kind of packed me a whole emergency kit,” Nunez told The News Tribune. “My family’s trying to be really prepared for anything.”
While she gets some odd looks and questions from her peers, she believes in being cautious.
“In all my classes, there has been a reduction in the amount of students who actually show up in class because they are concerned about the spread of coronavirus,” Nunez told The News Tribune on Friday. “People are thinking about it. Some professors cancel classes because not enough students will show up.”
The University of Washington announced Friday morning that as of March 9, finals and classes will not be held in-person for the remainder of the quarter, or until March 20.
Professors scrambled Friday to develop plans for the weeks ahead. Some felt more prepared than others.
“It’s not ideal. We’re basically concerned about our students finishing the quarter,” said Cheryl Greengrove, a geoscience teacher at UW Tacoma. “They have one more week of classes and then finals week.”
In the science department, where Greengrove works, labs and other hands-on activities are frequent. Right now, Greengrove is teaching a global climate change course to 25 freshmen.
“What I’m trying to figure out right now is, I have an in-class final,” Greengrove said. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle that online. I have no idea.”
Greengrove has worked at UW Tacoma since 1996.
“We’ve never had anything like this happen,” Greengrove said. “But if nothing else, UW Tacoma is always adaptable.”
Joyce Dinglasan-Panlilio, division of science and mathematics at UW Tacoma, had to say goodbye to her students on Friday.
Currently, she’s teaching organic chemistry to 19 students. With the transition to online classes starting Monday, she won’t be seeing them in person for the rest of the quarter.
Dinglasan-Panlilio is grappling with how she feels about the announcement by UW to go online-only.
“Maybe it’s the scientists in us a little bit — it’s like a bad flu bug. And we don’t close our classes for that,” she said.
A meeting was held at UW Tacoma Friday afternoon to try to work out some of the concerns among the professors there.
“How do you finish the hands-on? How do you do your final exams? How do you provide access to students that may not have high speed internet connection to you remotely?” Greengrove asked. “All of those are the questions that have come up, but we don’t have all the answers.”
John Burkhardt, communications director with UW Tacoma, said the university is taking action to help professors and students transition to a remote way of learning.
UW Tacoma already uses online programs such as Zoom, a video conferencing tool, and Canvas, a learning management system that allows the exchange of assignments and other materials online. Canvas is also used by some local K-12 school districts, which are also preparing for online learning.
“The university actually renegotiated a contract with Zoom so that we have much broader access to it amongst our faculty,” Burkhardt said. “Some faculty might not yet have explored much of the online side of instruction. This is their opportunity to do that.”
The school’s on-campus teaching and learning center has been reaching out to faculty to advise them and share tips and strategies for using the online platforms, Burkhardt said.
Students still will receive their grades, and Burkhardt doesn’t anticipate any impact on graduation schedules.
UW Tacoma is making determinations about events held on campus, but Burkhardt stresses that the school will not be shut down and that instruction will continue. Some essential staff will still be on campus in the coming weeks, but the university asked employees to work from home if they can.
Burkhardt describes the feeling among staff as more uncertain than concerned.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty about what might happen next,” he said.
“Better safe than sorry”
When 21-year-old Colton Berge got the news Friday morning about face-to-face classes getting canceled, he thought it was only for the Seattle UW campus.
He was surprised to find otherwise, but called it a “smart idea.”
“It’s definitely a little nerve wracking,’‘ Berge said of the virus. “I’ve been trying to limit contact with a lot of people, but I can’t really do that coming to campus. My biggest fear definitely is with working at my church. We have a lot of people who have compromised immune systems or an older age.”
UW Tacoma sophomore Brandon Lee works at a trampoline park and already practices sanitizing frequently and not touching his face.
He said moving classes online was a good precaution, but in his opinion, felt a bit like an overreaction.
“But again, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said.
Samuel Freeman and Kalysha White, both juniors at UW Tacoma, were initially sad about not coming to class.
“I really do enjoy my classes — I enjoy my peers, I enjoy the discussions that we have ... But I genuinely understand the importance,” White said. “I’d rather us be safe and not sick.”
White works as an resident assistant at UW Tacoma and said she’s been reminding people living there to keep clean. During nightly walks, she and her coworkers wipe down all the handles they can find.
Freeman is reminding himself to reign in his paranoia.
“I’m not gonna lie, like there are times where I’m here on campus and I see somebody cough or see something and I think to myself like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Freeman said.
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
