Difference between revisions of "Covid-19"

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* What is known about covid-19 (as of March 14) - https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/health/coronavirus-covid-19-flu-comparison-frieden-analysis/index.html
 
* What is known about covid-19 (as of March 14) - https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/health/coronavirus-covid-19-flu-comparison-frieden-analysis/index.html
 
* Simulation scenarios, advice, what is going to happen - https://ncase.me/covid-19/
 
* Simulation scenarios, advice, what is going to happen - https://ncase.me/covid-19/
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* State-by-state restrictions - https://www.huschblackwell.com/illinois-state-by-state-covid-19-guidance
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* State-by-state restrictions - https://www.huschblackwell.com/state-by-state-covid-19-guidance
 
* How is transmitted, some outbreak stories - https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?fbclid=IwAR23jRvKsCX5X6Gl8AIR7T1Q3Yu9aV-GWZx-sRFG580X09rErUJ4Wx2Hpoc
 
* How is transmitted, some outbreak stories - https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?fbclid=IwAR23jRvKsCX5X6Gl8AIR7T1Q3Yu9aV-GWZx-sRFG580X09rErUJ4Wx2Hpoc
 
* Proposal to group test every household in the US every week - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2020/05/03/dr-fauci-heres-a-way-to-contain-covid-19-and-reopen-the-economy-in-as-little-as-one-month/#6d6caf181c7a
 
* Proposal to group test every household in the US every week - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2020/05/03/dr-fauci-heres-a-way-to-contain-covid-19-and-reopen-the-economy-in-as-little-as-one-month/#6d6caf181c7a

Revision as of 22:04, 18 May 2020

This page will be kept up to date with information and resources related to how CS courses are handling impacts due to covid-19 (in particular online instruction and potential student/faculty illness).

Best-Practices for Not Becoming Infected or Infecting Others

If every person in the country followed the recommendations of the CDC, the pandemic would be under much better control. Keep yourself safe, keep others safe from you (if you become infected and don't know it yet), and set an example for others following these guidelines - listed in order of importance.

  • Stay home if - you have any new cold-like / flu-like / covid-like symptoms, specifically even if the symptoms are very mild. The virus is normally most contagious just before and just after the first symptoms. It is no longer "tough" to work, etc. when you are mildly sick; instead it is reckless, uninformed, selfish.
  • Stay home if - you are coughing or sneezing. The virus is transmitted much more effectively by coughing/sneezing than anything else (you could infect an entire room, a large portion of a store, etc.).
  • Wear a mask if - you are indoors with people outside of your household. There is no safe distance while indoors. You wear a mask to protect others from your germs, and remember that you are likely most contagious just before having any symptoms at all.
  • Stay outside - as much as possible if you do see/meet someone. The virus is dispersed much better outside than inside. In almost all cases, staying outside is safer than anything you would do inside.
  • No large gatherings - one person could infect dozens or hundreds. You could be the one person that infects dozens or hundreds. Don't be that person.
  • Short and sweet - make any trips indoors around others as short as possible. Order take out rather than dining in, make a grocery list and be efficient at the store rather than browsing aimlessly. The longer you are inside the more likely you are to become infected or to infect others. For outside meetings, minimize the amount of time you are too close to others.
  • Stay a safe distance - especially when inside, keep as much distance as you can between you and others. 6 feet is an easy distance to remember, but there is no truly safe distance when inside. When outside, keep a safe distance as well.
  • Good hand hygiene - wash your hands well before you leave somewhere and when you arrive. When you leave your house to go somewhere, wash your hands. When you return, wash your hands. Or use hand sanitizer if that is more readily available.

If everyone in the country did all of these, we could all mostly go back to work. Do your part.

Fall 2020

The university has not made any official decisions on to what extent the fall will be done face-to-face versus online. This will be dictated by how the summer goes with the spread of the virus and recommendations from local, state, and national authorities. The university is planning for various possibilities now, and will likely make final decisions by the end of June or beginning of July.

We will decide on online versus face-to-face taking into account the best interests of students, faculty/staff, and the community. Most students prefer face-to-face instruction, so we will do this if we can do it safely. As long as the state of the pandemic is such that we really need to reduce face-to-face interaction as much as possible, we will do so (i.e., hold classes mostly online). An "in between" scenario that is possible would be for face-to-face instruction but with strict capacity limits (e.g., 20% of normal), enforcing distancing, and having everyone wear masks while indoors.

The CS faculty are preparing to be ready for increased instruction online. As part of our preparations we are (a) ensuring faculty have technology they need to be effective from anywhere (e.g., writing tablet, document camera, ...), (b) focus group of students to share with faculty recommendations from students for effective online instruction, (c) revising the standards for teaching CS courses both online and in general, (d) ensuring faculty and student assistants are ready to go with software and technology that will be used.

For Students in CS Courses

S/U Grading

For each of your courses in Spring 2020 you were able to choose whether you are given a standard final letter grade (A-F) or S/U (Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory). See - https://www.indstate.edu/academic-affairs A few FAQ's...

Will S/U be an option again in summer or fall 2020? No, this was a one-time only option because things changed rapidly during the semester. Going forward we are all aware that things will be different and should plan accordingly.

Can a student change their choice from S/U to A-F or vice versa? No, the choice cannot be changed now.

If a student chose S/U but would have earned a C or higher, can they register for the next class? For example, if would have earned a C or higher in CS 151 but chose S/U, can they register for CS 201. If you are in this situation, get in touch with the associate chairperson so that we can let you register.

University and College Info

Lab Hours

The online lab is normally only open during the academic year. For the summer, be in touch with your instructor for help.

CS Online Lab uses Microsoft Teams. To get help, do the following.

  • Make sure you are using the latest version of Chrome or Edge (the software we will use is fully functional only in these browsers).
  • Go to https://teams.microsoft.com or https://portal.office.com and login with your full ISU email address on the initial login and then using your ISU portal Id when asked for that. If you login at portal.office.com, Teams is one of the apps that shows up (along with Word, etc.).
  • Request access to the CS Online Lab team - by going to this link and clicking to request access. One of the faculty or GAs will approve your request to join.
  • Once part of the team, you can check on the General channel whether a GA / lab assistant is currently on duty. You can post questions in the chat, or you can ask to talk. With the video call you can share your screen to show your code and talk through debugging it.
  • There is also a Microsoft Teams app that can be installed on phones and tablets. That should work as well.

Course Policies

Attendance Students should plan to keep their calendars clear for when they would normally have lecture. Some instructors will meet online with their classes during the regular lecture time. Courses should have at least some points each week that are easy to earn, play the role of attendance or participation, give students enough hope to keep working.

For courses where attendance is part of the grade, each instructor will determine how to count attendance during online instruction. The policy should be reasonable. Students should not be penalized for illness, and if there are other impacts related to covid-19 students should be in touch with their instructor and the associate chairperson of CS.

Lecture and Office Hours Each course instructor can choose how to deliver the content of the course - offline videos to watch, tutorials to follow, interaction using chat, synchronous video conferencing, or something else. Your instructor will let you know what to expect. You can see the possibilities that faculty are choosing from at Online-Instruction.

Programming Assessment For those who were unable to pass the programming assessment (CS 202, 500) in spring 2020, some remediation is being planned for May and June so that you can improve your C programming and data structures in order to pass the assessment. If you are able to pass the assessment you earn at least a C, and a change of grade will be put in for the course and you will be able to register for the next courses. The programming assessment is given online using the Lockdown Browser from within Blackboard. A by-phone option can be requested if needed.

Grades - Should be kept mostly up to date in blackboard.

Other See CS Online Teaching for other thoughts on good policies for online teaching.

Admissions / Prospective Students

We are aware that students hoping to attend ISU will have additional challenges in securing all required documentation, etc. in a timely manner.

For those applying for the CS MS, if our normal Graduate Admissions process is not feasible (e.g., you could not do a Skype interview but could do a phone interview due to internet issues, etc.) please be in touch with the associate chairperson. We will also be glad to defer Fall 2020 admissions to Spring 2021 for those who are admitted but end up unable to get to ISU in time for Fall 2020. Note that our normal admissions deadline for Fall is June 15, and for Spring is Nov 15. At this time the university-required documents for admission (4-year degree or equivalent transcript, English language scores if not from the US) remain the same, and the process for obtaining a student visa for international students remains the same. If there are any changes we will let all applicants know and post details here.

For international students, we are aware that many US consulates have put a hold on taking new appointments for visa interviews. At this time we just have to wait to see how this situation develops. As noted, we will be glad to take students for Spring 2021 entry if needed.

Covid-19 - Recommended Articles

Note - articles are added to this lest at the bottom, so least recent is first.

Covid-19 - Data and Analysis

Many will be interested in examining the data related to the spread of Covid-19. Some sources of data, articles on simulations, links to research, etc. (least recent first). Note - try the youtube videos first, assuming you like watching videos.

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