NDSU announces plan to resume in-person classes this fall

NDSU has announced its plans to welcome students back to its campus come fall, with some changes to the normal operations of the university. Students will now be required to wear face coverings, which are widely used to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

In an e-mail to the NDSU community Thursday afternoon, President Dean Bresciani says the University has now received a grant totaling nearly $20 million to help with its COVID-19 planning.

The cornerstone of the college’s planning revolves around a hybrid system of delivering classes known as the HyFlex Educational Model. The grant enables them to use technology to convert nearly every single classroom on campus into a room that can seamlessly and synchronously integrate in-person teaching with remote instruction in as close to a “normal” manner as possible. The HyFlex world is one where students and faculty who are vulnerable, in isolation or in quarantine, can still effectively teach, learn and be an active part of the NDSU community. HyFlex allows students who are concerned about in-person attendance to still participate in class, and it allows faculty to “flip” the class and teach remotely to students that are both in the classroom and remote.

The university says they will be introducing additional physical spacing in classes additionally.

NDSU will not alter their schedule this fall.

“The future impact of COVID-19 remains uncertain, and campuses around the country are implementing

various changes,” Bresciani says. “We have opted not to modify our schedule. Instead, we have opted to use technology to modify our delivery methods and negate the need for schedule adjustments while still maintaining the learning that occurs in the live, interactive environment.”