Education in Fall 2020

By: Marina Balaga

Currently, our school, like many others around the nation, are educating the students online, using online tools such as Google Classroom, Zoom, and even YouTube. These methods are being used to carry out the rest of the current 2019-2020 school year. Many people—students, educators, and parents alike—are worried and uneasy about their education, their jobs, or the education of their children. Online classes, especially for younger students, are or could be very difficult to achieve. These worries could be temporary, but there is no date in when this pandemic could be over. With the uncertainty of the future, the most asked question from students and educators is, “What will education look like in the fall of 2020 if the pandemic is still going on?”

For San Joaquin Delta College, their fall semester will be mostly online, with only a few courses partially meeting in person.According to Delta’s website, “Delta College is scheduling Fall Semester classes to be mostly online. Hands-on career technical education classes and some arts/music/drama classes will be scheduled as “hybrids” — partially online, partially in person — with plans to exercise specific social distancing guidelines. This plan will enable all students to complete their classes on time.” Many other colleges and universities are also planning to do similar things in the upcoming fall semester if the restrictions of the pandemic continue. UC Berkeley, for example, has three plans for three different scenarios:

“ Scenario #1: For public health reasons, the campus must continue with full remote instruction, and predominantly remote work being done in the operations and research realms.

Scenario #2: In-person operations resume, with limits and restrictions imposed by public health authorities.

Scenario #3: Campus operations largely return to normal (i.e., mostly in-person), but wherever possible, will accommodate students, staff, researchers, and instructors who need or prefer to operate remotely due to continuing pandemic conditions.”

In general, the University of California system President, Janet Napolitano, has stated that it is still unknown in which form instruction for the Fall 2020 terms will take. But if the University of California campuses were to reopen, testing and contact tracing programs will be required. As for California State Universities, they share the same view currently as other educational institutions, which is that they are planning to have their fall courses online, but only time will tell. California school districts, like others in the nation, want to open their school for the upcoming Fall 2020 school year, but with no solid date at which the pandemic will end, that is unlikely. If the current restrictions and risks are still present in the fall, remote instruction or distance learning will be the only option. Though the future is uncertain right now, we know we all have to stay safe and continue learning through resources we are given online.