As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads, colleges and universities now face the challenge of whether requiring booster shots and when to resume face-to-face learning. For college officials and millions of college students, these problems seem familiar. The pressing question is when to start the new semester, either the next few days or weeks.
Some institutions have already decided to start the first weeks of the semester virtually reinstating tough precaution measures.
The list includes Harvard University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, several of the University of California’s campuses, Michigan State University, Jackson State University in Mississippi, the University of Cincinnati, the Queen’s University of Charlotte, and the University of Hawaii’s campuses.
Regarding vaccination, most universities encouraged their students proof of inoculation.
Eight institutions in the University of California system that are operating remotely — Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Cruz — extended virtual classes to late January. Stanford University, Duke University, and Seattle University have announced delaying a return to in-person classrooms, as well.
In a message to the campus community, the President of Seattle University, Eduardo M. Peñalver, explained that remote learning would be extended through January 30.
He summarized the dominant thinking in higher education:
“Current projections suggest that the Omicron-driven wave will continue to grow rapidly before cresting over the next few weeks. While early research continues to indicate that the variant is less severe and results in milder illness compared to earlier variants, especially among vaccinated people, there is still a great deal of uncertainty.”
That uncertainty is affecting admission offices and visitor centers, too. Virtual tours seem to be the new norm for now.
Angel Studios, the streaming platform behind the Christian series “The Chosen”, announced last week it had raised $47 million in funding from venture capitalists. The financing was led by VC firm Gigafund and Bain-backed Uncorrelated Venture.
Angel Studios, the streaming platform behind the Christian series “The Chosen”, announced this week it had raised $47 million in funding from venture capitalists. The financing was led by VC firm Gigafund and Bain-backed Uncorrelated Venture. Original seed investors Alta Ventures and Kickstart Fund also participated.
In addition to VC money, $5 million was crowdsourced directly from fans.
Angel Studios presented the financing injection as an effort “to bring control of the entertainment industry back to consumers and creators” and “give Hollywood a remake.”
“The round caps off a major comeback year for cofounders Neal and Jeffrey Harmon, who led Angel Studios to over $100 million in annual revenue just one year after Disney and Warner Bros tried to shut the studio down in court,” said the company.
Gigafund, known for being one of the largest investors in SpaceX, said through its Managing Partner, Stephen Oskoui, “Angel is on track to rewrite the rules of the media business and have a significant impact on culture.”
Today’s movie business is a $280-billion industry almost totally controlled by five major Hollywood studios. According to Angel Studios, Hollywood executives decide what content to produce, with little to no input from consumers. Almost 80% of the films fail to break.
“We are a community-driven movie studio that empowers audiences to decide what content gets produced and distributed while creating communities around each project. Creators pitch projects on the Angel platform, and “Angel investors” fund the ones they’re most excited to see (via the Angel Funding Portal).”
Under this model, three successful shows have been produced, including:
The Chosen, the #1 crowdfunded media project in history, viewed over 300 million times, to date, with a special in theaters this Christmas.
Dry Bar Comedy, the #1 family-friendly stand-up comedy channel, is currently on its eighth season with one billion views a year.
The Wingfeather Saga, the world’s #1 crowdfunded animated kids show, is currently in production.
Angel Studios — whose stated mission is “to be the home of stories that amplify light” — said that the funding round will be used “to improve its streaming platform, market to new audiences, and develop its content pipeline for 2022 and beyond.”
The World Bank and United Nations’ UNESCO and UNICEF estimate that school closures during the COVID-19 may result in a $17 trillion loss in lifetime earnings for students – an impact more severe than previously predicted.
“The pandemic brought education systems across the world to a halt,” said Jaime Saavedra, World Bank Global Director for Education. “The loss of learning that many children are experiencing is morally unacceptable,” he added.
This loss takes into consideration the devastating impact on future productivity, earnings, and well-being for this generation of children, families, and the world’s economies.
In the report, countries like Brazil, Pakistan, India, South Africa, and Mexico detail substantial losses in maths and reading skills.
UNICEF and UNESCO suggest reopening schools as the solution. In addition, they recommend governments implement Learning Recovery Programs to ensure students attain competencies.
Reopening schools is the solution that UNICEF and UNESCO point out. In addition, they recommend governments implement Learning Recovery Programs to ensure students attain competencies.
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Those offering an in-person start are rolling back past COVID-19 measures, such as mask requirements, vaccination campaigns, and coronavirus testing and screening.
However, universities, however, may change their plans as the semester draws closer.
What’s different from the past is that now going online is temporary. It means that a remote start might be followed up by a return to normal operations.
According to the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College, nearly 90 percent of colleges and universities are permitting students back to campus.
Stanford University launched its first class in virtual reality, using Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 headsets.
Taught by Professor Jeremy Bailenson, Communication 166/266 Virtual People deals with the emerging VR technology and its use cases. It covers the expanding influence of VR in many different fields, including popular culture, engineering, behavioral science and communication.
The course is part of a study carried out by Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The research is looking at how virtual technologies can be effectively used in educational settings.
Professor Jeremy Bailenson came up with the idea after teaching students about VR for nearly 20 years. After that time, he decided that the best way to demonstrate its abilities was to create a full course experience with VR. He is the author of the seminal VR text Experience on Demand, which also is one of the class’ assigned readings.
According to the course structure, students will use lecture time to take part in VR experiences by themselves or as a group, including class discussions.
In 2021, 263 students, all with their own VR headsets, across 20 weeks and two courses, spent over 3,500 shared hours together in the Metaverse.
Each week, the course centers on different areas where VR can be used in the real world. According to the course structure, students will use lecture time to take part in VR experiences by themselves or as a group, including class discussions.
Among the class exercises was a guided meditation in outer space. Students were able to create performances with different avatars.
“In Virtual People, the students don’t just get to try VR a handful of times. VR becomes the medium they rely on,” professor Bailenson said in a statement. “Nobody has networked hundreds of students with VR headsets for months at a time in the history of virtual reality, or even in the history of teaching.”
The class has drawn students majoring in diverse disciplines, including economics, political science, communication, anthropology, biology, computer science, film and media studies, comparative literature, art practice, psychology, and sociology.
Facebook’s parent company Meta, creator of the Quest device, says that such headsets will play a big part in a future “metaverse” it plans to build with other companies.
In addition to the headsets, the course also uses the Engage virtual communication software to connect the students and teachers. Engage is used by major companies and educational organizations to hold virtual meetings and events.
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