Resuming In-Person Classes under COVID-19: Evaluating Assigned Seating Protocols in Limiting Contacts at Postsecondary Institutions

  1. Daniel Daly-Grafstein
  2. Patricia Daly
  3. Reka Gustafson

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Abstract

In order to limit the spread of COVID-19, Canadian postsecondary institutions are offering the majority of classes online for the 2020-21 academic year. The goal of Canada’s public health pandemic response is to reduce severe illness and mortality from COVID-19 while minimizing social disruption. To achieve this goal, post secondary institutions need practical tools to limit COVID-19 spread and facilitate contact tracing while returning students to in-person instruction. In this paper, we explore the impact of assigned seating for students attending in-person classes in reducing potential contacts. We conduct a variety of seating simulations using student enrollment data and measure the number of potential contacts under each scenario. We find that assigning seats to students significantly reduces the expected number of contacts relative to random seating, making the return to in-person classes more feasible under these scenarios.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.07.21256844: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.07.21256844v1 on medRxiv