Room booking instructions for the autumn semester

These instructions refer to booking pool teaching rooms for the 2020 autumn semester

• Period 1: Only timetables and rooms for period 1 will be processed before the summer. Submit your requests no later than 24 June.
• Period 2: Requests for this period will be processed after the summer holidays. The deadline for requests is 15 August.
• For instructions on what information you need to supply to Room Booking, as well as how requests for pool teaching rooms will be prioritised, see below.
• For teaching in a faculty’s or department’s own rooms, clinical teaching and teaching in the field, the instructions in the vice-chancellor’s and deputy vice-chancellor’s decision apply.

Introduction

On 8 June, the vice-chancellor and deputy vice-chancellor/chair of the Board of Education adopted new guidelines for teaching at SLU, valid as of 15 June:

University-wide policy decision on teaching and examination as of 15 June 2020 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic  (SLU ID: SLU.ua.2020.1.1.1-2319)

New instructions for teaching and examination at first- and second-cycle level in light of the Covid-19 pandemic (SLU ID: SLU.ua.2020.1.1.1-2319)

These guidelines state that teaching and examination at undergraduate and Master’s level may take place on campus, provided the format complies with the binding recommendations from the Public Health Agency and SLU instructions related to the pandemic.

Timetables and room bookings for the autumn semester have, in principle, been finalised. However, as an important requirement for on-campus teaching is that a distance of at least 1.5 metres between people can be ensured, this planning can no longer be used. As stated in the annex to the deputy vice-chancellor’s decision, in many cases this means that only between a third and half of the seats in a room can be used. 

New planning and bookings are consequently needed for the autumn semester. With limited space, we also need to prioritise what teaching will take place on campus. These priorities are set out in the deputy vice-chancellor’s decision.

Instructions for booking pool teaching rooms

To make sure there are rooms for the courses that need to be taught on campus, a large number of courses will still have to be taught online this autumn. Rooms on campus can be booked where there is a good reason for doing so. On-campus teaching should primarily be seen as a complement to distance teaching.

The maximum number of participants for on-campus teaching is 50, but even smaller groups should preferably be taught online if instruction is in the form of lectures.

Before you send your room requests to the room booking team, you need to prioritise what teaching should take place on campus. Priorities should be set at course level, but also at a higher level. Department directors of study (or equivalent) should be consulted before booking requests are sent to the room booking team.

Teaching that should take place in pool teaching rooms on campus

All courses, including for year 1, should submit an updated timetable for period 1. If you submit an existing timetable, indicate clearly, in colour, the classes for which a room is needed. Also indicate whether start times should change given the defined slots below.

Use the regular booking template if possible. Enter the course code, activity, number of students and if you need any special equipment. Activities such as exams, seminars and other interactive course components will be prioritised.

Email this information to the room booking team at your campus.

If there are rooms that are not regular pool teaching rooms but will be frequently used for teaching this autumn to maximise the space available, it may be possible to define them as bookable rooms in Timeedit. Inform the room booking team of any such rooms, and they will look into it.

Time slots

To reduce the competition for available rooms, on-campus teaching must be booked as one or more 2-hour slots (does not apply to exams):

• Slot 1: 08.00–10.00
• Slot 2: 10.30–12.30
• Slot 3: 13.00–15.00
• Slot 4: 15.30–17.30

Booking rooms for exams

To get an overview of the number of exams for which a room on campus is needed, you need to send a new request for this:

• Departments that manage exams themselves should send the booking template to the room booking team at their campus.
• Departments who cooperate with the exam services team should send their booking template to the exam services team at their campus. 
• Retakes for the 2020 spring semester can be booked subject to availability. Room booking requests can be submitted continually to the room booking or exam services team as indicated above.

Digital timetables

• Period 1: All timetables are displayed in Timeedit. Any room bookings indicated will only be final when room booking services have sent a confirmation to the requester. Confirmations are expected to be sent out in mid-July. When you receive your confirmation, check carefully that the timetable is correct and a room has been booked.
• Period 2: All timetables have rooms assigned and are displayed in Timeedit. However, these room bookings are only preliminary. They remain in the booking system until we know what guidelines will come from the Public Health Agency or the SLU management. (Applies to Uppsala and Umeå)

 Schedule

• Period 1 (31 August 2020 to 1 November 2020): All requests for rooms must be submitted to the room booking services no later than Wednesday 24 June. Confirmations will be sent out in mid-July.
• Period 2 (2 November 2020 to 17 January 2021): All requests for rooms must be submitted to the room booking services no later than Saturday 15 August. More information will be sent out well in advance before this deadline.

Read more about the number of seats available in different rooms on our main campuses, taking into account the distancing requirements.

Criteria for assigning priority according to the deputy vice-chancellor’s decision (p. 5)

For the use of for pool teaching rooms, the following applies:

• Teaching spaces, including examination halls, must be used in a way that makes it possible to practise social distancing. No more than 50 people may be present in a room at the same time. For groups of 50 or more, distance teaching is still required.
• First-year students need to get off to a good start and familiarise themselves with student life at their chosen destination. In case of a room shortage, first-semester courses on programmes will be prioritised over other courses. This applies to both undergraduate and Master’s programmes.
• To maximise the use of pool teaching rooms, excluding examination halls, bookings can only be made for 2-hour slots.
• In case of a room shortage, examinations will be prioritised over teaching, in particular exams that cannot easily be redesigned as take-home exams and consequently can not be offered online. Examinations a student must pass to remain on a course/programme will also be prioritised.
• If there is a shortage of rooms, seminars, exercises and other course components with a high degree of interactivity will be prioritised over lectures.
• To maintain social distance and minimise the risk of flows crossing between teaching rooms and in shared indoor and outdoor environments, sufficient breaks (at least 30 minutes) must be scheduled between groups. Using different start and end times for slots makes it easier to maintain distance when travelling to and from campus.

This gives the following order of priority:

Teaching or examination with:

More than 50 students                                 

• Digitally
• First-year students, digitally/shared group

Fewer than 50 students/shared group

Examination 

• 1. Campus

Classes       

• First-year students, ”high degree of interactivity”        2. Campus
• First-year students, ”less interactivity”      3. Campus
• Higher years, “high degree of interactivity”             4. Campus
• Higher years, “less interactivity”           5. Campus

If you have questions, please contact:

Uppsala/Umeå:

Room Booking: lokalbokning@slu.se
Exam Services: tentamen@slu.se

Alnarp:

Room Booking: lokalbokning.alnarp@slu.se
Exam Services: tentamen.alnarp@slu.se