Tetramester, Pentamester

A big question facing colleges and universities in the U.S. is whether in-person classes should commence in the fall, or if another round of remote teaching and learning is in the cards. Some schools have mentioned a “toggle term” – start remotely, then toggle to in-person midway through the term. For schools on the semester system, this spring was a toggle term – it started in-person, then switched to remote classes in a mad scramble.

While mad scrambles are undesirable, having had half a semester’s worth of in-person interactions helped in continuing the previously established classroom norms and relationships after the switch to remote. I think starting off the semester remotely makes this much more difficult; I say this as someone who lacks experience teaching remotely and has always taught only in-person classes. So if there was a toggle, I would prefer in-person first, then a switch to remote, rather than the other way around. Preferably, without a mad scramble. I don’t get to make this judgment call, though.

I wonder what schools on the block system (e.g. Colorado College) are doing for the upcoming fall semester. I’ve discussed some of the pros and cons of “being on the block” after visiting Quest University. The block system would certainly give one more flexibility in a wait-and-see toggle approach. You could rearrange the schedule such that classes largely amenable to remote teaching and learning (i.e., no labs, field trips, studio, on-site skill-learning) are in the first one or two blocks, keeping students away from campus for 3.5 or 7 weeks. Move the science labs to blocks later in the semester! You could even schedule instructors who prefer or are experienced with remote teaching in the earlier blocks. They then get a longer winter break!

As a chemistry instructor, I feel that the 3.5-week block is too compressed. I’ve never taught during my college’s January-term because I would be pooped out and not give my best for the spring semester. But I also think it’s challenging for students to digest major-level material in such a short block. That’s probably why my department only teaches a non-majors class or a field-research special topics class in this block. I think more time is needed to absorb, reflect, and mull over the material, as it (hopefully) sinks in. Chemistry is neither intuitive, nor obvious, and later concepts build on earlier ones. If you don’t let some of the basics sink in, students will have trouble grasping what comes next. Some folks can do it, but I think it’s less than optimal for many.

What if we had longer blocks of 8 weeks each? Instead of a semester system, a college could have tetramesters. Let’s first consider institutions where students typically take four classes per semester (a number of liberal arts institutions do this on a “unit” system where 1 unit = 1 class, and you need 32 units to graduate, so 4 x 8 = 32). On a tetramester, students would take two classes per semester on average. While their attention will still be divided between two classes, they can devote much more time to each (rather than splitting attention among four classes). Also, a student who wanted one tetramester off could attempt an intense load of three classes for two tetramesters.

Faculty could also divide their time differently. Assuming the 3-2 load of a selective liberal arts college, a faculty member could have two busy tetramesters of 2 classes each, one lighter tetramester with 1 class, and have a tetramester available for research. My department has started experimenting with special topic half-classes that run either in the first half or the second half of the semester. Students and faculty both get the equivalent of half-a-class (i.e., it’s not an intensive crammed version). This allows us to offer our students a larger variety of elective classes, and to teach our special topics rotation more often. So far I think both students and faculty like the arrangement.

For the many schools on a credit-hour system where students typically take five 3-credit hour classes per semester (and need 120 credit-hours to graduate, 15 x 8 = 120), there could be pentamesters of 6.5 weeks each. You’d have two pentamesters before Christmas and three after. A typical 3-credit-hour class meets for 42-45 hours over the course of a semester, so this would average 7 hours of class-meeting time per class in a pentamester. While students would average two classes per pentamester, there’s more flexibility overall to structure one’s school year in different ways. Offering half-classes (1.5-credit hours) could also work into the flexibility (G-Chem and O-Chem labs might fit into this category). Many institutions that serve a larger diversity of non-traditional students (i.e., not aged 18-22, usually in the working world) already offer class credits in smaller chunks. Perhaps liberal arts colleges will need to pivot to a similar model.

A faculty member who teaches five classes per year could space them out equally, one per pentamester, or have more intense teaching terms along with clear blocks for research. I think many of us would be happy to have that flexibility. I think I’d enjoy the more focused time with my students in a more intense 6-week pentamester, especially since they are only taking one other class. Although I wonder how much chemistry they would forget if a couple of pentamesters went by before they took their next chemistry class. Conversely, a student could get through G-Chem and O-Chem in a single year if needed, assuming the courses were arranged to allow this. The same class would likely be offered multiple pentamesters to provide flexibility. This also means a faculty member could reduce prep by specializing in teaching the same class pentamester after pentamester. I’d personally opt for more variety, but the point is that the pentamester provides flexibility for different preferences.

Would administration be more complex? Possibly, although possibly not by much. Collecting student fees and figuring out financial aid certainly would be more of a hassle. Class scheduling would be done more often, but less intensely each time – and possibly less complicated per pentamester. (I’ve done registrar-type work before so I know the complex puzzle involved.) Housing may be a bit more complicated if students take a tetramester or pentamester “off”. Providing flexibility can complicate matters, but it also provides the ability to adapt to situations such as Covid-19. And this is not the last global pandemic we’ll be seeing. There will be others, and so the question is whether we can make our institutions more robust to a variety of factors. Maybe it’s time for the pentamester!