(situation as of 23 September 2020)

In the following, you will find information, instructions, and recommendations regarding classes in the winter term of 2020/2021 at the First Faculty of Medicine of the CU with focus on changes linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes are adopted in response to directives issued by the Hygiene Station of the City of Prague and Rectorate of the Charles University and apply to all study programmes at our faculty.

At this point, we do not plan any changes to the regular beginning of teaching in winter term 2020/2021. The semester will start as planned on 29 September 2020. The faculty will try to minimise the risks by emphasising the need to follow all currently valid preventive measures.

Naturally, one cannot fully predict the future development of Covid-related situation, which is why we will have to update our functioning so as to conform to possible new measures and directives. It is also clear that the situation may differ significantly at different departments and institutes. Heads of institutes and departments and guarantors of particular subjects will therefore have the power to adjust the organisation of teaching according to new developments.

Our strategic goal is to maintain a high quality of practical and clinical instruction and to preserve examination in the in-person format.

In the document below, you will find both obligatory and recommended practice for:

1. Lectures
2. Seminars
3. Practical training and clinical internships
4. Examinations
5. Optional and required optional subjects
6. Instruments of communication, incl. online communication
7. Information for students and employees

1. Lectures

• In connection with a directive of the Hygiene Station of the City of Prague valid so far until 31 October 2020, lectures take place only online.
• Online classes will be centrally accessible from our faculty’s e-learning portal on MS Teams platform (https://e-learning.lf1.cuni.cz). The faculty recommends the following formats of lectures:
• Pre-recorded commented lectures, available on the e-learning portal under the headings of particular institutes/departments and courses (subjects), will be assigned to teams for particular courses (subjects).
• Lectures broadcast live at a time corresponding to the schedule of in-person classes will be recorded and recordings will be available online as in the point above.
• Lectures broadcast live at a newly assigned time suitable for live broadcasting, will be recorded and made accessible as in the two cases just above.
• For all these formats, it is essential to provide the option of interaction between teachers and students either during lectures broadcast live or during consultation hours (which can take place online, e.g. in MS Teams).
• Online teaching shall use communication and teaching portals MS Teams and Moodle supported by the faculty. For other e-learning materials, links must be placed at these two platforms (i.e. MS Teams and Moodle).

2. Seminars

• Seminars will take place online at times corresponding to in-person teaching schedule for particular study groups. Seminars will be based on video conferencing and the use interactive tools which enable student involvement. Attendance in such online seminars remains obligatory.
• In exceptional cases, seminars which involve practical instruction that cannot be translated to an online format will take place non-virtually, that is, by personal attendance. In such cases, the maximum permitted number of persons present is 15.

3. Practical training and clinical internships

• Practical training (labs, work with microscopes, simulation learning, work with anatomical specimens, etc.) is limited to groups of at most 15 persons present in one room. During such training, it is important that all preventive measures be observed (covering of mouth and nose, disinfection of hands and working surfaces). Observance of these measures is the responsibility of each teacher.
• During clinical instruction, it is necessary to ensure the lowest possible student/patient ratio, whereby the maximum number of students present in patient’s room at any one time is 5. In case clinical instruction takes the form of excursion to a particular department, the maximum number of students if 15. All students must be appropriately instructed and strictly observe hygiene measures throughout their stay at the clinical department. They must cover their mouth and nose and disinfect their hands, eventually also instruments. Observance of these measures is the responsibility of each teacher.
• Subject guarantor will determine the requirements related to personal protective equipment to be used at a particular department in consideration of current epidemiological situation and the range of patients. These requirements may be stricter than listed in the point above.
• We recommend that as part of clinical instruction, the following may be included: interactive case analysis seminars, training of how to take a patient’s medical history, and execution of basic examination methods mutually among students, eventually using a ‘role play’ where students assume the role of patients and physicians. We also recommend work with findings of both lab tests and diagnostic methods, training of optimal procedures, commented videos of particular procedures (videos from examinations/operations) and simulation techniques.
• In case of clinical internships where students are not in direct contact with patients (simulation learning, imaging methods, ECG), the maximum number of persons present in a room is 15.
• Based on an agreement with department head, it is possible to use for clinical instruction also participation in clinical services (shadowing).
• We would like to ask all subject guarantors and all teachers to actively offer their students the option of online consultations in smaller groups.
• In case a student is due to serious and objective reasons (whose validity is to be evaluated by subject guarantor) unable to participate in practical training, it must be determined how this training is to be compensated. The form and extent of such compensation and conditions of meeting study obligations may be determined by guarantor of the relevant subject (compensation may take the form of e.g. individual consultations or shadowing).

4. Examinations

• We assume that in a vast majority of cases, examinations will be held in person. At most 10 persons may be present at an examination. Online examination may be permitted in exceptional cases by subject guarantor.
• In case a student is due to objective reasons unable to attend in person, even state examinations may take place online. The procedure for online examination is defined by the relevant dean’s measure.
• State examinations take place in front of examination committees and both the process and announcement of results are public.
• It is necessary to inform students, consistently and in a timely fashion, about requirements pertaining to final state examinations and procedures that must be followed.
• Material covered in examinations must correspond to syllabi and defined requirements for completing a subject.
• All changes to the requirements and forms of examinations must be recorded in the SIS.

5. Optional and required optional courses

• Required optional courses follow the same principles as mandatory courses; they may not be cancelled.
• Optional courses take place in accordance with directions specified above but may be postponed to the summer term.
• It is the responsibility of subject guarantor to inform students about the form and progress of a subject (course). All such relevant information must be recorded in the SIS.

6. Instruments of communication, including online communication

SIS – is the primary source in accordance with valid directives. It contains required information and students’ valid e-mail addresses. Each institute or department must make sure that its information in the SIS is up to date.

MS Teams / Moodle – newly recommended (obligatory) unified information hub for the entire faculty. Each subject must supply, in a clear form, links to all recommended sources.

Links to basic communication instruments

· MS Teams: https://login.microsoftonline.com

· Moodle: https://moodle.lf1.cuni.cz

· SIS: https://is.cuni.cz/

· Návody: https://e-learning.lf1.cuni.cz

7. Information for students and employees

• All information pertaining to Covid-19 measures issued by the faculty or Charles University management, eventually by organs of state and public administration, will be as of 22 September 2020 placed on the following link at faculty website: https://www.lf1.cuni.cz/, https://www.lf1.cuni.cz/studium-behem-covid-19-zimni-semestr-2020
• All information pertaining to organisation of teaching, the format of studies, as well as conditions and forms of examinations will be updated by subject guarantors in the SIS and communicated via MS Teams. This pertains also to students of the English parallel courses.
• In case the situation at a particular institute or department requires substantial changes to the organisation of teaching – with the exception of changes listed in points 1,2, and 3 – implementation of these changes will be discussed by subject guarantor or head of department/institute with the vice dean for study affairs and teaching without delay.