For example, here's a list of Online Lab resources but I don't know how to assess these suggestions. Are these well-designed? Are these expensive? Are they miserable? Etc.

Ugh, this one is hard. For chemistry, the point of labs is threefold: to teach how to do experimental science (eg test a hypothesis by acquiring data), to illustrate concepts discussed in lecture, and to teach physical skills (using a balance, using a syringe, operating equipment). The answer isn't one size fits all. (Disclaimer: lab courses were the only kind of thing I was much good at in college, and I liked them a lot.)

I've taught and taken a few different kinds of labs, and some units would be totally fine remote (we did a genetics "lab" via computer simulations of fruit fly breeding that was fine and way more practical), and some just wouldn't. Watching someone perform experiments doesn't teach you how to use equipment. The truth is, though, most students don't actually become proficient after one lab, and the vast majority don't actually need that skill (90% of the undergrads in my labs at UT were premed. The lab where they used syringes was truly alarming, but I guess med school sorts that . . . if they get in). However, upperclass labs for majors tend to include independent projects that you couldn't do at home or just have someone else perform.

The ideal to me would be to reduce lab classes to 4/semester with maybe 5 students per group, no pairs, on the most important/practical concepts and skills with the rest virtual, but that assumes all students are remote-but-local, which isn't likely. Second best to me is in person with distance. All the teaching labs I've worked in had about 2 m distance between work stations anyway with no crowding. Labs by nature are pretty well-ventilated. My worksite is a young demographic, lots of new grads, and we've been shockingly fine, even with certain tasks requiring groups to work in close proximity.

We're specifically arguing about whether a student who (1) lives with an at-risk individual, and (2) absolutely needs the course during the spring semester, should be forced to come to campus, or if the university should be obligated to accommodate them.

Oh, and the virtual resources I've seen are good quality. I guess my argument would be to decouple the point of lab classes to minimize the amount of in person work, but I just don't think fully virtual is appropriate for a lot of subjects. Hard to make a broad ruling, though. I feel like physics had more labs you could simulate effectively (and really, how many experimental physicists are there that use ramps and carts vs acquiring huge data sets to analyze on equipment that is shared use and operated by site staff), chemistry fewer, and biology in the middle.

3: That student should be accommodated as if it were a disability, IMO. Set up a webcam for an in person student and let the student follow along live and generate lab reports using the same data set.

Easier when it's a one-off than general policy. There are some neat examples of schools setting up labs so students with low vision can perform experiments, for example. Obviously, they aren't going to do experimental lab work professionally, but I'd use that as your guide.

This is helpful.

It's hard for me to disentangle when, eg, the accounting faculty are arguing as forcefully as the science faculty that they should be allowed to compel students to come F2F, and I know perfectly well that the accounting faculty are being precious.

5 is what I was wondering! They are very resistant to the partner-with-a-GoPro model, and saying it will double their workload, and I'm just struggling to understand how that can be.

As I understand it, most jobs are drawing a line between being high risk (accommodations required) and living with someone high risk (no accommodations required), but college isn't the real world and AFAICT was always more willing (Probably because they were afraid of lawsuits but it doesn't really matter why) to make adjustments. My example was always that doctors don't get double time on surgery but college kids get double time on tests. That's pretty standard, and those who don't like it still abide by it.

7 is total bullshit. Do you have TAs teaching labs, or just profs? Sorry about your colleagues.

Ha, I'm always saying, "Tests are artificially stressful. When in the real world are you actually expected to deliver perfect results in two hours? In the real world, you take your time, do your research, collaborate with others, and check your work."

9: Good to know. Ok, this is out of your purview, but am I right to grant nursing faculty a little more leeway when they push back on Partner-with-a-GoPro?

(Just profs, no TAs. Sometimes an undergrad mentor is assigned to help the prof, but not as an instructor.)

On work computer, on work call but this might be interesting: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2020/08/31/embracing-the-paradox-lessons-learned-from-teaching-virtual-field-courses/

My university dealt with this by moving everything online or to a hybrid model as much as possible, so that labs, music, etc. could continue while being distanced. That said I think most lower division labs went to virtual models.

10: My job is literally to produce materials in +/-10 min from a pre-specified time at high quality. The entire process takes about 4 h start to finish. I do this 2-5 days a week. Those jobs do exist, but they are uncommon!

11: I truly have no idea but am happy to speculate irresponsibly! I had a friend who taught "chemistry for nurses" in grad school (the sweetest TA assignment ever), which would be fine with that model, but it was a very, very basic chemistry lab. Probably anything where the student is expected to actually perform the task they learn in the lab as a reasonable part of their job is where I'd draw the line.

12: Could you have the undergrad mentor do the fussy setup parts and make sure the remote student has the data (easy now to snap photos and email them)? I bet that's the sticking point. I assume the grading would be unaffected.

My job is literally to produce materials in +/-10 min from a pre-specified time at high quality. The entire process takes about 4 h start to finish. I do this 2-5 days a week. Those jobs do exist, but they are uncommon!

This seems so stressful!

It sounds less stressful than teaching.

16: It is! But it's kinda fun. And not dull. At least not yet.

Not your main concern here, but for music instruction, I don't think a mandatory-F2F argument should be accepted. It's an incredibly compromised experience, but the things that can't be done all that well over the internet REALLY can't be done safely in person (e.g. wind band or choir rehearsals). The rest of it--classroom stuff and individual instrument/voice lessons--is a drag to do via video, but it can be done. There are many very active groups on Facebook, etc., discussing how to do it and people have come up with good ideas.

We're all online except nursing and some labs. I'm sympathetic to the faculty insofar as that if they're going to support students with the "go-pro" model, the school itself should be managing most of the details, just like they would if it were a typical disability services accommodation. I agree with the general sense that very few courses actually need to be F2F under these circumstances.

I asked AJ for a second opinion, and he had a completely opposite view. He felt like, even for the most basic level lab courses, that physically performing the experiments was the most important goal for lab courses, and without that, the courses wouldn't serve their pedagogical purpose. He also thought some skills should be sharp enough to use professionally without retraining, which surprised me, since we taught the same courses! He didn't even agree with a reduced number of experiments slated per semester to try to keep students in smaller groups. I was kind of surprised. I argued that a pandemic surely merits lower standards, and he said it wasn't fair to have a year or two of students who had to meet dramatically lower standards in their coursework.

His worksite is basically open after a two month R&D pause with everyone working from home. They are running swing shifts with 50% occupancy and mandatory masks, but no other real precautions (work stations in the lab were separated but no changes to the cube farm of desks). So, I guess from a risk assessment perspective, neither of our sites have had outbreaks, but the caseload where we are has been low enough that an index case is statistically unlikely.

Interesting!

This really isn't nearly as important as work or school, but I still miss bars. I've tried drinking more at home and it helps, but it's not quite the same.

Maybe I need fries too?

I just got back from a bar, first time since early March. It was outside on a terrace and very socially distanced with 3 friends (one a couple) who take this very seriously so minimal risk but good fun.

"Body-fluid monogamy" now includes respiratory droplets.

I think for biology labs learning the basics of pipettes- setting volumes, seating tips, blow out, mixing- and other simple techniques (vortex, microfuge) is really essential if you're going to be doing any lab work at all in the future. Unlike synthetic chemistry the equipment is cheap enough and safe enough that you could ship a set to all the students (assuming they send it back at the end of the course) and do a reasonable remote simulation. You might not want to do some of the functional experiments at home but could follow along with the procedure while the remote instructor shows the actual outcome. With some redesign and extra funding you could do some real things remotely- DNA extraction, digestion, and electrophoresis with a battery system. Our company does a summer program for local high school kids and we sent them all the materials necessary to do the whole thing remotely.

There was a story about some high school kid getting a fetal pig in the mail for biology lab.

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Update for those who remember the discussion here a few months ago about Jeremy Corbyn's mad brother Piers.

He has now been arrested on anti-mask demos twice in 48 hours.
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