Pace returns with different learning modalities for classes

Katie Walsh, Managing Editor|July 2, 2020

Katie Walsh

Pace will be opening their campus back-up for the Fall, but there will be new regulations and requirements to protect the safety and health of all students, staff and faculty.

Pace university may be reopening their doors for on-campus interactions. However, with the social distancing requirements, capacity limitations and CDC recommendations, not all classes will remain in the classroom.

Over the past two weeks, Faculty and administrative staff have determined which of the four learning models with various components will apply to each class on the fall schedule. These modalities have been proposed and submitted to the provost’s office. 

Pace has announced that these modalities will be available for students to see in schedule explorer and on their current student schedule on the week of July 24th.

Joan Walker, Ph.D., Co-Director for Faculty Development, Assistant Provost for Research, stated that the office has to look through the proposed modalities, with the examination of campus space.
Changes will likely occur to the proposed learning formats, which is the reason for the delay. The universities will be prioritizing College of Health Professions and STEM labs, as well as, experiential programs/ courses for in-person classes. 
The class modalities will be released a week prior to the tuition deadline, which has been stated as sometime during the first week of Aug.

Students will have until August 24th to make changes to their schedule.

” We are aware that the timeline is tight but we know that students and families understand that Pace has never had to construct its schedule like this before and that we are living in a world where we are all doing things we never expected, ” explained Walker. 
 Here are some of the learning styles that the university is utilizing,

Fully on-campus

Some courses require the in-person hands-on interactions and an in-person format for all classes would benefit the learning experience. This modality would be given priority to labs, clinicals and performance courses. In addition, Pace is prioritizing the first-year experience when possible. However, instructors of these courses have to be prepared to move to online instruction, if needed. Furthermore, they must accommodate  student absences due to quarantine or isolation. This requires the material in these courses to be  available to students asynchronously through recordings of classroom instruction and/or posting of materials. 

Fully online, asynchronously or synchronously  

Some classes will be offered completely online. Instructors will have to state whether the course will be taught asynchronously or synchronously. In both scenarios, all course materials must be accessible to students asynchronously  through recordings that will be posted online.

Web-assisted

Some courses may use a mix of on-campus sessions with online, asynchronous or synchronous elements. This modality may include a flipped classroom pedagogy, having half the class live via the web and half in-person or instruction may involve remote learning for certain material and on-campus instruction for other learning objectives.

HyFlex:

 This format allows live, synchronous instruction to both an online group of students and an on-campus group of students. This format would include students alternating between in-person/online. The hyflex allows social distancing to happen in the classroom, with the reduction in classroom density. Faculty has to state the dates and times classes will be offered on campus so that students can prepare.