U of S preparing for ‘uncharted territory’ with remote delivery in fall: Vice-provost

It’s going to be an unprecedented academic year at the University of Saskatchewan.

As students prepare to return to class, most of the academic delivery will run through online or remote learning, at least for the fall semester.

U of S vice-provost Patti McDougall joined Gormley to chat about the upcoming fall semester.

“We are geared up (for) a fantastic fall,” she said. “The majority of our academic programming this fall will be delivered remotely. We do have some in-person activity going on.”

McDougall said courses such as veterinary medicine, medicine, nursing, dentistry and physical therapy will have both in-person and online learning components. She said safety will be top of mind when students do return to campus — even with the decline in bodies within the university’s hallways.

McDougall said there has been a lot of work done to convert to the remote delivery of classes.

She said she hears the criticisms from students when looking at the tuition, which was frozen in the 2020-21 school year.

“Students are still working for the same University of Saskatchewan credentials. They still have access to the same range of experts in the field that we offer … None of that has changed,” McDougall explained.

“We did freeze tuition in all but a handful of degree programs for the (2020-21) year, so that was a significant move. We undertook to look fee by fee to see where we could potentially achieve savings for students.”

McDougall said costs associated with COVID-19 and the pandemic period aren’t less but have increased from the U of S’s end.

“There’s a myth that somehow the remote or online experience is of lower quality. (I) don’t think that in fact is the case, at all,” she said, adding hundreds of faculty members had input in the remote learning model rolling out in September.

She added that some may actually be more comfortable in the remote learning model, naming introverts as one group that would benefit.

“Many of our students are of a generation in a digital age where they create relationships and bonds and have interactions that exist entirely within a digital space … Many of our students are not going to be daunted by being in a remote environment,” she explained.

“This is uncharted territory for many of us.”