On the basis of Thursday’s Czech government meeting on new measures against the Covid-19 epidemic, all Czech universities have been ordered to shift to distance teaching from 12–25 October. Get acquainted with the details regarding the regime at UP below.
Ban on physical teaching, exceptions for medicine, health sciences, pharmacy
The ban on physical attendance at lessons affects not only university students, but also life-long learning students. Exceptions to the ban on physical teaching are clinical and practical teaching and internships for students studying in the educational fields 35 – General Medicine and Dentistry, 36 – Health Sciences, and 8 – Pharmacy.
In addition, students of education do not have to interrupt or end their required teaching internships taking place off-campus.
Practical lessons in other study programmes at other faculties are not allowed. The entire Czech government edict of 8 October 2020 can be read in its entirety here (in Czech).
Ban on individual laboratory (and other) research, consultations possible only on-line
For the time being, the current interpretation of the measures also prevents personal attendance of students in laboratories and elsewhere at the university for the purposes of research (incl. carrying out experiments and measurements necessary for Master’s theses and other academic work).
Students are allowed to consult with their teachers only on-line.
IInformation on possible changes to the regime at university libraries will be found in the days to come on the university library website, on their Facebook profile and of course also on the webpage www.upol.cz/en/covid-19. We will also keep you updated on any changes in the current rules in effect at UP as a whole.
Tools for on-line teaching and videoconferencing
UP, via the Computer Centre, is currently able to extend to interested UP employees its licence for the on-line and university-supported platforms Zoom and MS Teams. Also available are the open source platforms Big Blue Button and Moodle, whose server capacities have been increased for maximum stability. In case of any questions or uncertainties about them, UP students and employees should contact the Helpdesk service.
A general overview of available on-line tools and instructions for working with them can be found on the UP Portal and also on the university Wiki.
UP has also issued a manual for on-line teaching and examinations.
Working from home
Individual faculties, or the heads of workplaces at individual university units, will establish their own regimes for employees being present in offices or possibly working from home.