Information for students on courses in the winter semester 2020/21

2020-09-04 We must continue to expect restrictions in the presence of the university in the winter semester 2020/2021 due to the applicable distance and hygiene regulations, especially since the applicable distance regulations mean that the university's seminar rooms can and may only be used to an average of 20-30% of their usual capacity.

At the same time, it is very important to the presidential committee, after close coordination in the senate and with deans, deans of studies and student representatives, that we are able to re-establish presence as far as possible in accordance with the applicable conditions. The Senate has therefore decided to revise the corresponding annexes to the framework examination regulations for the alternative delivery of courses and examinations during the Corona crisis for the winter semester 2020/2021. The new versions of the annexes were published in the Leuphana Gazette (https://www.leuphana.de/universitaet/amtsblatt.html) on August 7, 2020 (for courses of study at the College, the Graduate School and teacher training) and August 10 (for courses of study at the Professional School) (No. 88-93/20).

The Senate resolution regulates that professors and lecturers at Leuphana can conduct their courses in the winter semester 2020/2021 in the following forms:

  1. in hybrid teaching formats (i.e. classroom teaching with rotating subgroups and simultaneously online participating students), or
  2. in the form of online events using digital tools (e.g. Zoom, Moodle), the integration of multimedia content (e.g. videos, podcasts) and, if necessary, moderated self-study, or
  3. exceptionally, in full presence (if there is sufficient space and in compliance with the regulations of the university's hygiene guidelines) or
  4. in a combination of items 1 to 3.

In order to enable the implementation of hybrid courses, all seminar rooms on the campus are currently being equipped with cameras and microphones - due to the necessary procurements and capacities, hopefully on time until the beginning of the semester, otherwise soon after. As soon as the installation is completed, teachers and a portion of the students registered for the course (approx. 20-30%) will then be able to attend the course in person, in compliance with the rules of distance and hygiene, while those students who are not physically present will be able to participate via video conferencing. The students who are physically present should change with each course in such a way that all students can attend a course in attendance at least every 2-4 weeks.

The publication of the course catalog is expected to take place on September 14, 2020. Our lecturers are requested to provide detailed information on the implementation of their courses in the course descriptions in myStudy by this date.

In addition, please note the following information regarding the organization of courses in the winter semester 2020/2021:

  1. All courses in the College and Graduate School will be offered exclusively in digital form in the first week of the semester. With this regulation we want to ensure that in the first phase of the course search and organizational coordination there will be no violations of the applicable distance and hygiene regulations and that all students can properly participate in the courses.
  2. All courses are planned within the normal time frame of the framework timetable, so that overlap-free study is possible.
  3. All courses will be assigned a seminar room of sufficient size for the regularly registered students by the building management. In the event that the distance rules are lifted during the winter semester, these courses could thus take place again with the full number of participants in the planned room.
  4. As long as the distance rules apply, our instructors are requested to make arrangements with you for the attendance of the respective courses - i.e. to agree which students can and should participate in attendance on which dates and which students can and should participate digitally via video conference on which dates. Your teachers will provide you with more detailed information on this at the latest when the courses begin.
  5. In addition, we are currently working on increasing the number of student workstations on campus so that as many students as possible can stay on campus during breaks between courses or during a change from classroom-based courses to digitally conducted courses, taking into account the rules of distance and hygiene.