Back to School during the pandemic ...a discussion thread

So our little pandemic school world fell apart yesterday. First case in both kids schools. And the case in DD's school is her best friend's little sister. So DD is still in school, the best friend is home waiting for test results, if they are positive DD's class will be sent home, as her friend is in her class. DS's school there are 2 cases now, with 2 classes home. Neither is his class, but a bunch of people in his class were sent home yesterday as they had "close contact" with at least one of the cases. DS was up half the night sick with worry, we are all exhausted and just waiting for the next bit of news....
So sorry you’re going through this. My son is doing virtual because I know we’d all have trouble dealing with this sort of anxiety. Best wishes that your kids are fine and the others recover quickly.
 
She's in Alberta no? It's the same app, theirs started sooner but is the same technology and last I heard was going to switch over the federal one... however it doesn't seem to have been switched yet. So not sure what you found.

And to be perfectly honest, given how many people have no idea where they contracted COVID because the tracking and tracing is not doing it's job, it would be nice if someone was tracking the information.
I went by the information that comes directly from the Alberta website, but i stand corrected, it is extremely confusing unless you dig deeply into the website. Can you please remove my post from within yours? Thanks and apologies again for adding more confusion to the discussion
 
I teach post-secondary and there are 'virtual' invigilators, where students are recorded via their webcam during an exam. I then receive a report at the end of the exam and it flags students who did not stay in the frame or did anything else unusual during the exam period. The program also locks their computer so the only window they can have open during the exam is the one with the exam itself.

That being said, the program isn't perfect, and there is no way for me to tell if a student is looking down at their keyboard to type in an answer or whether they have another electronic device sitting on the desk next to them or in their lap.

I came to this realization after exams in the spring, so what I changed for my summer classes and classes this fall is that I created a massive test bank and each student gets a random set of questions from it, so it really doesn't matter if they're texting their friend to see what they got as an answer for any particular question, since their question #14 will be different from their friend's #14. This is something that I wouldn't have been able to do in a traditional classroom setting with a paper exam.

I have now also made all of my exams open book, since I have my suspicions that while my stronger students would abide by closed book rules, my weaker students wouldn't, so why penalize students who would be willing to follow the rules. The tradeoff is that they now have more questions to answer in the same amount of time than if the exam was closed book - so I warn them that while there may be comfort in having materials at hand, if they have to look up more than a handful of answers, they may have trouble finishing the exam in time.

It's tough trying to find the balance so everyone feels like they are being treated fairly.
 
I came to this realization after exams in the spring, so what I changed for my summer classes and classes this fall is that I created a massive test bank and each student gets a random set of questions from it, so it really doesn't matter if they're texting their friend to see what they got as an answer for any particular question, since their question #14 will be different from their friend's #14. This is something that I wouldn't have been able to do in a traditional classroom setting with a paper exam.

I went to university more years ago than I care to admit. I did have a couple profs that would mix up the order of questions, so there would be a few different paper exams. We were then seated such that the person in front of us, behind us, and to each side had a different version of the exam.
 


How is that even possible? I couldn't manage that and I'm in my 30s. Poor kids who have to sit through these exams just staring at a screen for 3 hours :(
Didn't say it was fun. DS wasn't nuts about it either.

Its not that difficult to do. The invigilator doesn't have to be a 1:1 ratio. One invigilator can probably monitor 20 students or so at a time - it's just a matter of how many can fit in a screen. That's about the number of students a proctor would already oversee in a gymnasium setting. (one proctor per desk row). I would think that an invigilator should monitor several sessions; it would be VERY boring to only watch only one student at a time.

And just read @Maddysdaddy's response. I don't think DS's course used electronic invigilator, it sounded like it was a live person, but sounds like a cool system you have developed. Again, my original point is that online exams don't need to be difficult and can be setup to fair and not gamed.
 
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First case in my DD's school reported yesterday. That class + teacher(s) self-isolating for 14 days. My daughter went to school as normal today.

I'd wondered what it would feel like the first time a confirmed case was in her school but truly, still feel good about her being there. Feel badly for the student who has it and their family. Praying they recover quickly and others do not get it.
 


First case in my DD's school reported yesterday. That class + teacher(s) self-isolating for 14 days. My daughter went to school as normal today.

I'd wondered what it would feel like the first time a confirmed case was in her school but truly, still feel good about her being there. Feel badly for the student who has it and their family. Praying they recover quickly and others do not get it.
My DD has already had 2 cases in her school (other classes) and her French and music teacher are isolated too as they visit many classrooms. She said it's quiet at recess and near her room with classes at home. My son has already been quarantined. Fine thank goodness.

It is scary, but feel the same...still glad we sent them to school. I just never know from one day to the next if she'll be going to school the next day.
Hope it's an easy case for the child and the family is ok too.
 

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