A Queensland university prompted outrage by ordering its academics to scrap established plans for online teaching and return to face-to-face classes, a sign of the sector’s chaotic and disjointed response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A host of universities – the University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, University of Wollongong and University of Technology Sydney, among others – are rushing to transition their courses online. The Australian National University is pausing its teaching for a week from Monday and says it is “stopping face-to-face teaching for lectures and moving to remote participation”. But others are pressing on with some form of face-to-face teaching of lectures and other classes, albeit with risk mitigation measures, including Monash University. But a spokesman said the university was “working towards what is expected to be a government directive to suspend face-to-face teaching in the near future”.

Source: The Guardian March 20, 2020 01:22 UTC