Irish Examiner View: Zoom in for the virtual lecture

Any grammarian worth his or her salt knows that the word virtually is an adverb, as in the petrol tank is almost full or, a little more downbeat, this university course is not quite first-class. Used as an adjective, a student might be heard to complain in this way: “My degree course is almost or nearly as described, but not completely.” It’s likely that we’ll be hearing many complaints of this kind if the example set by the University of Cambridge in moving all lectures to online delivery not just for the first semester but for the entire 2021/22 academic year — with no fee reductions — catches on.

It is, sadly, likely to. Most of the courses at McGill University, Montreal, will be online. At California State University (CAL) — the largest four-year public university system, with 23 campuses, in the US – classes will be exclusively online, again with no fee cuts. There might be possible exceptions for classes in its nursing programme and for science courses requiring work in laboratories as, annoyingly, they must. CAL’s chancellor agrees that it will be a “different experience” for students, but insists that it will not be a “bad” experience. As ever, when in search of optimism, if not positive spin, look to California.