Safety at the forefront for final weeks of Fall Semester

Provost Robbin Hoopes announced on Nov. 24, just before the Thanksgiving break, that many Fall Semester courses previously offering in-person activities have moved to remote operations for the final weeks of Fall Semester.

Some class sections will continue to conduct in-person activities during the final two weeks of Fall Semester in order to achieve all course learning outcomes.

All in-person class activities are continuing to apply safey precautions that were put in place at the beginning of the semester, including mandatory masks (and in some cases, face shields) as well as maintaining distancing except when learning activities require closer proximity.

• All courses offered by the Humanities & Sciences Division are operating remotely, so no changes were needed.
   
• The Engineering & Information Technologies Division started the semester with 105 in-person sections. Provost Hoopes said 70% of those sections will finish the semester with remote or reduced in-person operations.
   
• The Business Technologies Division started the semester with 70 in-person class sections, and 75% of those sections have moved to remote learning or have reduced in-person activities.
   
• The Health & Public Safety Division started the semester with about 50% of the 165 course sections conducting activities in-person (or through a combination of remote and in-person activities).
• For the rest of Fall semester, about 75% of HPS sections will be fully remote.
   
• Sections still meeting face-to-face are completing lab activities that must be done in person to meet accreditation standards. Most of these sections have about 2 in-person sessions scheduled during the final weeks.

During his Nov. 24 “Provost’s Update” meeting, Provost Hoopes said Cincinnati State started Fall Semester with a plan to be “as remote as possible.”

Planning for Fall classes stressed using remote delivery options, but took into account that some skills-based courses must offer in-person learning to meet accreditation requirements or to ensure that students achieve industry standards for hands-on skills acquisition.

“Other Ohio community colleges started Fall with many more in-person classes than we had,” Provost Hoopes said. “”When we started Fall Semester, only about 30% of our class sections were meeting in-person.”

“As pandemic concerns increased in recent weeks, other schools made many more changes to their schedules than Cincinnati State had to make,” Provost Hoopes added.

Provost Hoopes said he asked the division deans to meet with each program chair to consider whether some in-person course activities could be reduced without harming students’ achievement of course learning outcomes.

“I appreciate the tremendous efforts of the deans, the chairs, and the instructors who are working hard to keep students engaged and on-track during our challenging times,” Provost Hoopes said.

“Cincinnati State faculty are helping students achieve their goals by safely delivering instruction through remote methods wherever feasible and through careful adherence to COVID protocols for courses that require in-person instruction and assessment,” Provost Hoopes said.