A group of medical experts is rating campus COVID dashboard in an effort to “encourage colleges and universities to be as transparent as possible with their COVID strategies.”
Factors such as ease of use, types of data reported, frequency of updates and frequency of campus testing, all figure into the rankings produced by We Rate Covid Dashboards, launched by two Yale doctors and a Harvard medical student.
The A++ to F ratings also consider whether dashboards provide COVID data from surrounding communities as, the creators say, it’s crucial for administrators to understand how the virus is spreading off-campus.
Other measurements include whether staff and student results are reported separately, how soon tests come back and the number of students in isolated or quarantine.
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No schools received the top grade, and a dozen F’s were given to institutions that don’t have a COVID dashboard.
The highest grade given—an A—was awarded to 14 schools:
- Tulane University
- Vassar College
- Colgate University
- Harvard University
- Yale University
- Clark University
- Stony Brook
- Brown University
- Centre College
- University of Maryland, College Park
- University of California, Berkeley
- Stanford University
- Boston University
- University of Michigan
Dashboards that ranked lowest were not easy to read, were not updated daily and only included data on positive tests, the experts said.
Do universities with highly-touted schools of public health (as per @usnews) tend to have outstanding #COVID19 dashboards? Not necessarily. Universities should call on their in-house talent! Full ratings: https://t.co/4cyroFEfkB pic.twitter.com/fCniz8wxPS
— We Rate Covid Dashboards (@CovidDashboards) September 23, 2020
UB’s coronavirus page offers complete coverage of the impacts on higher ed.
