Information for professors and lecturers on teaching in the summer semester 2021: Update on hybrid face-to-face courses and face-to-face exams
2021-05-31
Dear professors and lecturers of Leuphana,
against the background of the fortunately continuously decreasing infection figures for some time now, we would like to inform you today, after comprehensive internal coordination, about the next steps for Leuphana's handling of the Corona pandemic.
The university's previous strategy of consistently avoiding contact and strictly adhering to the known hygiene and distance rules has so far proven to be correct. Regardless of any further steps, you are still asked to remain vigilant, exercise the utmost caution and not take any unnecessary risks of infection, so that together we can continue to manage the pandemic as well and safely as possible.
Due to the current very positive developments, the Presidential Board has decided to take the first cautious steps towards opening up the university during the current summer semester. These opening steps also concern the area of teaching, specifically the opening of courses for hybrid formats and the implementation of examinations in the summer semester.
Specifically, assuming continued low infection rates and incidence, the following changes will occur beginning June 1:
1. HYBRID TEACHING FORMATS
The lower infection figures mean that, from June 1, professors and lecturers will again be able to offer their courses in (hybrid) partial attendance at their own request. Leuphana has already equipped a large part of our seminar rooms with the necessary video and audio technology during the past winter semester, so that you can use normal seminar rooms for hybrid courses.
The familiar distance and hygiene rules continue to apply to the conduct of the courses. The capacity of the seminar rooms therefore continues to be considerably limited and is usually 10-20% of the normally available capacity. Information on currently applicable room capacities can be found in the room information on myStudy. Please note: All rooms will be furnished or marked by Building Management according to minimum spacing requirements. The arrangement of the furnishings may not be changed.
If possible, please inform the Building Management at raumvergabe@leuphana.de by the end of the week (June 6, 2021), if you want to switch to hybrid operation with your course and use the room that is currently assigned to your course in myStudy for this purpose. If you want to change your room in order to enable more students to participate in attendance, please also contact the building management, which will then reassess the room allocation, taking into account any rooms that may still be free or available.
Before participating in a hybrid course in presence, we ask all students, as well as you yourself as an instructor, to carry out a rapid antigen test. For this purpose, instructors and students can visit the Corona testing station in building 14 on campus, for example. There you can be tested free of charge from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and receive a certificate of the result approximately 15 minutes after the test.
In addition, as an instructor, you can request rapid tests from the Occupational Health and Safety Department at corona-test@leuphana.de to hand out to students in the relevant courses prior to the start of the course. All necessary further information on the testing strategy and implementation of the tests can be found here: https://www.leuphana.de/intranet/verwaltung/arbeitsschutz/sars-cov-2.html.
The Teaching Service is still happy to assist all instructors with support services for planning and implementing hybrid structured courses. Detailed information can be found at https://www.leuphana.de/universitaet/entwicklung/lehre/aktuelles-semester.html.
2. EXAMS IN PRESENCE
As of July 1, you will again be able to make use of the option to hold examinations in presence, as an extraordinary situation due to the Corona pandemic no longer exists to an extent that justifies holding examinations exclusively in digital formats.
However, examiners at Leuphana will continue to have the option for the summer semester in accordance with the applicable Corona Annexes to the Framework Examination Regulations to choose between conducting examinations in attendance or in accordance with the digitally conducted alternative examination formats defined in the Corona Annexes. In accordance with these regulations adopted by the University Senate, you as examiners are obliged to make a corresponding decision by June 25, 2021 and to communicate it to your students.
For the performance of examinations in presence, all known measures for the protection against infections (mask obligation, distance rules, etc.) will still have to be observed. In addition, it is necessary to provide students who are prevented from taking part for health reasons with the option of an alternative examination format.
We will provide further detailed information on the framework conditions for conducting examinations in attendance in good time before the start of the first examination phase.
3. OUTLOOK AND REQUESTS
In view of the positive developments, we currently continue to assume that we will be able to conduct all or at least a large part of teaching and studying in attendance again in the coming winter semester. We will continue to inform you about this on an ongoing basis.
To ensure that this goal remains attainable, however, we ask you to continue to exercise great caution in the coming weeks, despite all the positive developments and the resulting easing of the situation. Meetings outdoors are always preferable to meetings indoors. And the request continues: please do not come to campus if you have any signs of respiratory illness - even mild symptoms. In these cases, please stay home and seek medical advice.
For all university-related questions, you may continue to contact cv-info@leuphana.de. For additional general information, please visit https://www.leuphana.de/portale/coronavirus.html.
We hope that despite all the hardships of the past few months, you continue to persevere well, that you are able to enjoy the first days of summer, and that you look forward - as we all do - to a gradual return to what we hope will soon be a life close to normal.
With best regards
Sascha Spoun
President
Christian Brei
Executive Vice President
Erich Hörl
Vice President College
Simone Abels
Vice President Graduate School
Jörg Terhechte
Vice President Professional School
Susanne Leeb
Vice President Research