Perspectives is the newsletter of the Stanford course,
Perspectives in Assistive Technology.

Summer Update

This issue describes course planning for the next academic year.

Summer Update

Greetings members of the Stanford's Assistive Technology course community,

I hope you are doing well - staying healthy and safe - during this very crazy time. Over the past several months, I have been scrambling to finish my Winter Quarter Assistive Technology course, including organizing alternate project presentations, reading final reports, and submitting grades. I have struggled to keep up with my physical exercise, emails, meetings, and interactions at home with my laptop. In short, my entire normal routine has been disrupted and I have seen few friends and colleagues in person. Perhaps you also share some of these experiences. Here is a belated report on what has happened since the beginning of March and my thoughts for the future.

The date was Friday, March 6th, the end of Week 9 of the Winter Quarter. While listening to the evening news, I was surprised to hear that Stanford had just closed the campus, suspended classes, and ordered all the students to return home. At that time there was just one student who had just contracted the coronavirus.

The next week was supposed to be the last week of classes. Students in my course were preparing for their end-of-term project presentations on Tuesday and their project demonstrations and burrito celebration on Thursday. It was not to be. Their projects - in the final stages of completion - sat suspended, presentations were given by video or Zoom in the following weeks, and final reports were submitted late. Even though the student teams did well and received excellent grades, it was a disappointing and frustrating end of the course for everyone.

Looking ahead to the next academic year, there are still many uncertainties. The university must make some tough decisions. These following options are being considered:

1. To limit the number of students on campus, dorms, and classrooms the current plan is to allow only half the undergraduates on-site each quarter. In the Winter Quarter when the class is run; Juniors, Seniors, and graduate students will be allowed on campus.
2. Most courses will be run online. On campus classes will include both on-campus and online students tele-learning from all over the world.
3. There will likely be limited access to university resources such as the PRL shop where students fabricate their projects.
4. However, there is a real possibility that all classes will be remote this coming academic quarter starting September 14th.

All these considerations have impacted my course planning for the coming year. Here are my current thoughts:

1. I do not think it would be safe for students to work on projects in-person with community members with disabilities or older adults on projects due to the risk of transmitting the virus. Interaction by Zoom, email, or telephone would be more appropriate.
2. I am not sure how an on-campus or online student teams would work safely together on projects and maintain physical distancing. I think it may be best to have individual students work on smaller scaled-back projects, resulting in a CAD design or a low-resolution minimally functional prototype, especially if PRL shop access is limited.
3. It is unclear how best I should organize and teach a course where some students attend the class in-person and others attend online. Options include some combination of in-class recorded lectures, pre-recorded videos, and discussion sessions using Zoom. It would also be unsafe for community members to sit in on classroom lectures. My current plan is to present lectures on-line by Zoom, recording them for viewing by students who are unable to attend in real-time. Students will also be required to watch videos of guest lecture sessions from previous years. I will certainly invite people from the community to join the Zoom lectures.
4. Some lecture sessions that will have to be eliminated include in-class project pitches, field trips, movie night, mid-term project presentations, the Assistive Technology Faire (although an online version may be possible), and the end-of-term project demonstrations.
5. The scaled-back projects and loss of some of the lecture sessions lead me to consider having the course "meet" just one day a week instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays and reducing the credit units for projects from 3 to 2.

In preparation for the upcoming Winter course offering, I would like to start to solicit projects suggestions from you. Given the situation, here are some criteria to consider:

1. Suggestions must address a real problem experienced by a community member with a disability or older adult. The project must address a challenge that is not adequately served by existing products. (Perform an internet search to verify this.)
2. The scale of the project must be such that it could be pursued by a single student working with limited resources and fabrication facilities. The project outcome could be a CAD design or a low-resolution prototype that may not be fully functional. Other acceptable project activities can be found here.
3. Interaction with community members must be electronic only - no in-person meetings.
4. Refer to Project Requirements webpage for further information.

Here is an example project suggestion that should guide your thinking:

Please contact me with your ideas, questions, comments, and suggestions - or just to say hello. Please continue to stay safe & healthy.

Dave Jaffe

Let me know if you wish to be removed from this list.