Northern deals with the COVID-19 pandemic

Since COVID-19 started spreading across the United States and hit Montana last March, universities were faced with difficult decisions.

After going online-only through the summer, Montana State University-Northern reopened for a shortened fall semester on campus, working to provide a safe but high-quality education including using technological advances, adding additional time to classes and having finals remotely.

The university system had to quickly adapt to dealing with the pandemic, which has been confirmed in almost 19 million Americans and caused almost 331,000 U.S. deaths.

March 12, Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian directed all Montana University System campuses to switch to remote or online classes by March 23 to reduce exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Christian made the directive shortly before Gov. Steve Bullock declared an emergency in the state that same day and one cay before the first cases were confirmed in Montana.

Christian himself was one of the first confirmed cases in the state, with the announcement he tested positive released March 14, two days after he issued his directive.

Montana State University-Northern was just going into its spring break when the directive came, and didn't come back to in-class learning after the break, instead going online and remaining online through the summer.

Students who remained in student housing were asked to follow the governor's stay-at-home mandate and not invite guests into the residence halls for the rest of the spring semester, and the student dining hall was revised, closed between meals and cleaned after each meal and students only able to buy to-go or carryout meals only.

Chancellor Greg Kegel said May 19 he created a COVID-19 task force with which he met with daily.

The university immediately started planning for how to handle delivery of classes in the fall.

Kegel announced May 19 that in-class learning would resume Aug. 31, with restrictions, and continue to the Thanksgiving break.

After Thanksgiving, the courses went back online with instructors giving finals then.

Montana State University-Northern worked closely with local and state officials and health care professionals to ensure the safety of faculty and students, the university said. People who tested positive or were exposed to the pandemic were quarantined and relegated to online learning.

Kegel said the school was looking at all the options it could do such as how many students can they put in a classroom, how many students can they put in a residence hall, optional testing available for them to monitor their health and so on. An effort was made to provide alternate delivery methods for students who couldn't attend classes.

Kegel said a goal was preserving the quality of instruction so that whatever the course work is the students get it and the depth they need to have.

Northern provided technology and training to help instructors transition to online teaching and using technology during the fall semester, and several said the transition went fairly smoothly for teaching this fall.

Instructors who were faced with the challenge of providing a safe space for themselves and students by going through workshops to adapt their teaching during the pandemic. Professors learned different strategies to enable the best possible classroom experience throughout the summer and additional training in the fall.

Hands-on learning environments, like lab courses in nursing and automotive and diesel technology, continued in a face-to-face format at Northern over the fall. However, the instructors of those courses had to be creative in situations where students needed to be remote due to quarantine, isolation, or other if students had to be temporarily remote, many classes included alternative ways to learn and demonstrate hands-on skills, such as simulation software or interactive video assignments.

Face-to-face labs were treated with care for the safety of students by practicing social distancing, wearing masks and using sanitizer.

Northern extended its class periods by five minutes every day in the fall to make up for time lost going remote after the break. By doing this over the semester, the classes made up some time so students could get the same amount of learning before the break.