Schools go all-out to get all online

Campuses are mostly shut down for the rest of the semester

Citing ongoing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the health and safety of their school communities, local universities and colleges that initially suspended in-person classes temporarily have decided to finish the spring semester with remote-only instruction.

As of Friday, Umass Lowell has moved 2,700 on-campus classes to various virtual delivery systems in only 10 days. This is on top of 600 pre-existing online courses.

“It’s hard to imagine, it was just a short time ago when we made the decision to begin with remote learning, thinking we might only have to do it a couple of weeks — and then within hours have to change that decision and share with the faculty and the students that we are going to go the remainder of the semester in the remote learning environment,” Umass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney said Friday. “It’s just been phenomenal watching this team of faculty, staff and students pull together this community. We, as of today, have finally launched all of our courses in a completely remote environment with only about three days warning. So kind of a remarkable feat and the good news is right now, it feels like it’s going exceptionally well.”

She said she has heard positive feedback from faculty and students alike about the rollout, and the university’s level of responsiveness during the transition.

Moloney said Umass Lowell was well-positioned to take on the challenge because of its great strength in delivering online education. About half of UML faculty have taught online, and all of its classrooms are “smart classrooms” outfitted with technology, she said.

“So when we made the announcement, of course, the challenge was that it was just not planned over a semester or sum

UMASS LOWELL FILE PHOTO Umass Lowell students, seen moving in at the start of this school year, have largely made an early exit because of the coronavirus pandemic. The school has put all classes online.