Switch to online-only classes cuts UA computer-lab options

FAYETTEVILLE -- Students accustomed to using on-campus computer labs at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville now have far fewer options as online-only classes restart today after spring break.

Closed is UA's Mullins Library, which a spokeswoman said has 148 computer workstations, and most other computer labs, including a campus gaming center.

"A lot of people would come here to kill time, have fun and probably make everyone else sick," Corbin Davis, a UA senior, said on March 20, the last day for some UA computer labs to be open. The closures, said to be until further notice, are part of UA shifting to only "essential operations" on its campus in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

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To support academics, the university, along with others in the state, has scrambled to provide technology support for students after the suspension of in-person classes and the move to online-only courses. Efforts at some universities to keep computer labs open are taking into account the emphasis on social distancing by reducing the number of available workstations to create more distance between users.

Colleges are also offering a mix of online technology help -- at Arkansas State University, it now operates around-the-clock, a spokesman said -- and resource guides for students, school officials said.

Learning resources at the University of Central Arkansas, for example, include "extra help with things such as study strategies, tutoring and academic support to help navigate the online-only learning environment," spokeswoman Amanda Hoelzeman said in an email, with other universities also describing similar help.

Some universities, including UCA and UA, have loaned equipment to students.

At UA, where there was already an equipment loan program, demand has "greatly increased," said Dallas Shewmaker, a UA Student Technology Center supervisor.

Heading into spring break, as of March 20 about 120 laptops were available to be checked out, said UA spokesman John Thomas, with 300 laptops typically available.

Other UA students may have their own equipment, but still miss being able to use a campus computer lab.

Davis, a business information systems student from Cabot, said that while he owns a laptop, he liked using the machines in the UA Digital Media Lab in the student union, a part of the Student Technology Center.

He said in the past he used the workstations -- which each have two monitors -- perhaps once or twice a week.

"Just working from my laptop by itself is kind of tricky. I don't have a mouse, and having two monitors makes things very easy for working on a lot of stuff," Davis said. Shewmaker said the approximately 14 machines in the Digital Media Lab are also equipped with graphic design and media production software, workstations designed for certain "bigger projects."

UA is keeping open one computer lab in its student union, but as of March 20 the number of workstations in it had been cut in half to about 37. Signs on every other monitor said the staff had disabled the workstation "due to the high risk of the virus spreading."

On Wednesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced a statewide public health directive that, until further notice, prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people in a confined indoor or outdoor space.

The directive includes some exceptions, but did not specifically refer to classrooms or computer labs. Danyelle McNeill, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said everyone in a computer lab setting would be expected "to practice social distancing."

The statewide directive advises an "appropriate" distancing of at least six feet to try to prevent the spread of the virus. Person-to-person transmission of the virus takes place in part through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing.

UCA in Conway has closed its computer labs "due to the need to social distance and maintain incredibly sanitary equipment with limited staff on campus," Hoelzeman said.

ASU is keeping its computer labs open while maintaining social distancing, a spokesman said. Arkansas Tech has kept its Pendergraft Library and Technology Center computer workstations open but reduced their number from 180 to about 90, a spokesman said.

Shewmaker, on the UA campus, described stepped-up cleaning practices at workstations and on loaner equipment as a student worker in the lab wore gloves while wiping down a keyboard.

"We've put in extensive sterilization processes," Shewmaker said, with equipment cleaned both upon return and before being issued. Similar cleaning will be taking place at computer workstations, he said.

SundayMonday on 03/30/2020

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