Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeffrey R. Young talks about how the University of Washington became the first college to transition to online classes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

• What kind of implications does this have for students? What can we do to reduce anxiety over coronavirus? 

• Here's more on the importance of a resilient mindset in dealing with the coronavirus.

The University of Washington on Friday became the first university in the U.S. to announce that it would halt in-person classes and exams, in hopes that that will slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Starting on Monday, March 9, no in-person classes or exams will be held at the University of Washington through the end of the quarter, which wraps on March 20. Officials plan to resume normal classroom schedules at the start of next quarter, on March 30. To date, Washington state has seen about 75 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

“I am not saying it is not safe to be in class,” said the University of Washington’s president, Ana Mari Cauce, during a press event on Friday that was streamed online. “This action was taken with an abundance of caution, aware that in many of our classrooms students are sitting in very close proximity to each other.”

Officials sent an email to all faculty and graduate students at the university on Friday saying that exams “may be conducted online where feasible, at the instructor’s discretion.”

Decisions on whether or not to travel to previously scheduled meetings or conferences are being left up to individual faculty and staff members, said Cauce, the university’s president. She herself has decided to cancel a planned trip on Monday to San Francisco, and to attend the meeting by videoconference instead.

The university’s president added that even while officials plan to reopen on March 30, they are also planning for the contingency that next quarter’s courses may have to shift to online delivery “for a week or two.”

“We have every intention of reopening next quarter, but I don't have a crystal ball,” she said. “I can’t say where we’ll be at in three weeks with COVID-19.”

Read the full article about the effects of the coronavirus on colleges by Jeffrey R. Young at EdSurge.