Protect Purdue Glossary of Terms
Updated August 19, 2021
Quarantine: Keeping someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others. Quarantine helps prevent spread of disease that can occur before a person knows they are sick or if they are infected with the virus without feeling symptoms. Individuals in quarantine should stay home for 14 days, separate themselves from others, monitor their health and follow directions from the Protect Purdue Health Center. PPHC will provide guidance specific to your quarantine location, including on how to safely obtain food. For more from the CDC on quarantine, go here.
Isolate/Isolation: Separating people infected with the virus (those who are sick with COVID-19 as well as those with no symptoms). Individuals with active cases are asked to isolate for at least 10 days after symptoms begin and 24 hours after their fever has broken, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with the improvement of other symptoms. Individuals in isolation must not leave their home except for emergencies or to obtain further medical care. They should monitor their health and follow directions from the Protect Purdue Health Center. For more from the CDC on isolation, go here.
Symptomatic: An individual who is exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus — fever of 100.4 or higher, cough and shortness of breath are the main symptoms of COVID-19. For the latest on symptoms from the CDC, go here.
Asymptomatic: Not showing any symptoms (signs of disease or illness). Some people without any symptoms of COVID-19 can still have and spread the coronavirus, however. They’re asymptomatic, but contagious.
High-Risk Contact/Exposure: A high-risk exposure is defined by the extent of time spent together, masking and proximity: time greater than 15 minutes while within 6 feet of one another AND at least one individual is not masked. After a high risk exposure, fully vaccinated individuals or those who have been infected with COVID-19 within the prior 90 days would not quarantine as long as they remain without symptoms. Unvaccinated individuals would quarantine for 14 days.
Low-Risk Contact/Exposure: Defined as any individual who was around a COVID-19-positive person for less than 15 minutes at a distance of more than 6 feet and wearing masks.
Hybrid/HyFlex: Hybrid courses combine face-to-face (in person) delivery of content and activity with online content and activity, such as videos of lecture content, structured online group activities or simulated lab experiments. In typical hybrid courses, the instructor makes most of the choices, such as when the class meets in person or online as well as the percentage breakdown of each format during the semester (50/50; two-thirds online/one-third face-to-face, for example). HyFlex follows the hybrid model, but learners can switch between in-person and online completion of activities and assessments at will — for example, in-person or via virtual classroom (WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) in real time or from a recording while completing online activities later. For more, go here.
Resilient Pedagogy: An approach to course design that anticipates disruption and blends in-person, hybrid and online features to ensure continuity of instruction for students and faculty in any eventuality, such as if an instructor or student needs to quarantine or isolate because of COVID-19. At the same time, these courses meet the same high standards of rigor and excellence of in-person instruction. The Impact X+ program supports instructors to design their courses to be more resilient and to preserve the course integrity during external challenges, with special focus on the unique needs of large-lecture, lab-intensive, experiential, writing-intensive, and project/team/design courses. For more, go here.
Contact Tracing: Process for identifying individuals who have come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. The purpose of contact tracing is to provide early medical intervention with the contact, which may interrupt or prevent spread of the disease.
Sampling vs. testing: Sampling is the scientific process of collecting a specimen from an individual to determine whether an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is present. This is done most commonly through a swab or saliva specimen. The sample is then analyzed for the virus at a diagnostic testing laboratory. In this case, negative (or “not detected”) is a good thing. Testing is the commonly used phrase for this process, start to finish.
Congregate Housing: Common at college campuses, this is a type of housing in which each individual or family has a private bedroom or living quarters but shares a common dining room, recreational room or other facilities. For COVID-19, guidelines have been established to help owners, administrators or operators of shared, or congregate, housing facilities — working together with residents, staff and public health officials — prevent the spread of the coronavirus. At Purdue, this includes housing ranging from some residence halls and apartments to cooperatives, sororities and fraternities. Those living and working in congregate housing may have social distancing challenges because residents often gather closely for social, leisure and recreational activities, shared dining, and/or use of shared equipment, such as kitchen appliances, laundry facilities, stairwells and elevators. For tips on how to protect yourself in congregate housing settings, go here. For general CDC guidance, go here.
Online Option: The University’s academic plan during the 2020-21 academic year to offer a robust lineup of fully online courses for students who could not or chose not to come to campus because of the COVID-19 pandemic but desired to start or continue their Purdue studies virtually instead of in person as a residential student. Online offerings included an extensive course catalog, specifically most high-enrollment courses. Instructional designers and video teams collaborated with faculty to support adaptation of many courses to the online environment. All online courses had the same content, learning outcomes and rigor as their on-campus counterparts. Courses were tailored for an online environment and for participation from anywhere in the world. Note: The online option is not offered for the 2021-22 academic year.