Five more universities suspend teaching while they shift courses online
Five more universities will cease teaching for a week or more while they shift courses online.
On Wednesday five more universities announced unscheduled breaks from teaching to give them time to shift courses online to replace face-to-face teaching.
ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt told staff in an email that classes next week would be suspended and staff would use the one week break to finish the job of creating remote delivery courses.
He said the break would also allow his staff time to make arrangements to bring home to Australia the ANU staff and students who are currently overseas.
The university will remain open, including its libraries, childcare centres, retail outlets and student residential halls.
Victoria University vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said his university would suspend nearly all of its higher education and vocational education courses for one week starting Monday.
“We believe this change will help us to be as prepared as possible for any long-term disruption to classes as a result of the coronavirus,” Professor Dawkins said.
James Cook University said it would also pause face-to-face teaching next week so lecturers can fast-track the development of online course materials and the university could get ready to implement stronger social distancing measures.
JCU courses which are ready for online delivery will resume on March 30, with others following from April 6.
The Australian Catholic University will bring forward its one week mid-semester break to next week to give it a chance to put as many classes online as is feasible. Classes at ACU will resume on March 30.
Murdoch University has extended its planned one week study break starting next Monday to two weeks “to allow us to prepare for a transition to more online learning”.
All five universities will remain open during their teaching breaks.
Earlier this week six other institutions — the University of Queensland, UTS, Macquarie University, La Trobe University, the University of Wollongong and Swinburne University — also announced teaching breaks to help them move courses online more quickly.
The University of Sydney will shut down one of its two major indoor sports centres to allow cleaning resources to be concentrated on the other one, in the hope that it can be kept open during the coronavirus crisis.
The Arena Sports Centre will be closed, with its gym shutting on Thursday and the sports hall and climbing gym closing on Saturday.
The university hopes to keep its other main facility, the Sports and Aquatic Centre, open. It has a gym, pool and squash courts and sports hall.
“The above changes will allow our members to continue to exercise in hygienic conditions during this time of great stress,” the university said today in an email.
“Cleaning of the facility will be significantly increased on account of the changes and in addition to promoting basic hygiene rules, social distancing will be practiced across the entire facility with detailed signage in place.”
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