I'm teaching a couple of classes for ASU, online, this semester. The initial lack of transparency is something that has been criticized internally, but there are also strong measures in place if people get caught breaking rules, such as in residential halls, or if someone shows up to an in-person class without a mask. Rules and enforcement are there, but it's a bunch of 18-22-year-olds, for the most part, who think they are invincible. They'll gather off campus and party and most won't get caught. There was an "ASU Covid parties" instagram account to publicize parties, although now it's been deleted. ASU went to something like 80% online courses, but they probably should have gnoe to 100%. Still -- there are universities in other places that are not taking as serious precautions. It's a mess.
The shift to online teaching is presenting it's own problems. Because of my connectinos to the institution, I teach online every once in a while for them, when asked. But now the system is overwhelmed. Classes that would normall be 60-70% full are now completely full, with people writing to add. I have 170 students over 2 classes and had to beg for a TA. I got one, and she's great, but if I didn't every single quiz and exam would be multiple choice so that it would be automatically graded. Support has been decent, but my lectures have to be captioned by Disability Resources. It should take a day or two, but I waited 5 for the most recent one. ASU is one of the better universities for online instruction, it's been doing it for years and has a good system in place. I wonder about others who had to make the transition almost immediately back in March or April. My university here is very small, just 450 students or so, and only 35 or so in my program, so it was easy to manage.
