Teaching plan during the 2020-2021 academic year

Note posted on October 14, 2020

In response to the recommendations of the health authorities and the instructions of the UB’s executive council, the Faculty has decided, jointly with the director of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Heads of Studies, and the Master’s Coordinators, that face-to-face lectures will no longer take place between October 15 and October 30. Instead, synchronous online lectures will be given in the same schedule hours.

We regret the inconveniences caused by this situation, that we cannot avoid. Classroom activities will resume as soon as feasible. We ask all lecturers to maintain by all possible means the quality of their teaching and an effective working interaction with the students.

Previous information

After a six-month period of emergency remote teaching, the University of Barcelona returns to face-to-face lectures in the 2020-2021 academic year, while incorporating all the requirements of health authorities. Thus the University adopts a blended teaching model, combining classroom lectures with online activities. This model may be revised if the sanitary situation changes.

Although classroom capacity has been drastically reduced due to social distancing rules, each faculty will strive to guarantee adequate attention to students and, in particular, increase face-to-face interaction with first-year students in order to guide them through their first experience at the University. Class schedules have been designed so as to concentrate physical attendance to lectures in at most three days a week, whenever feasible.

In order to adapt the University’s general recommendations to the degrees of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Faculty Board approved on June 22 the following organisational plan.

  1. Prior to student registration, the Faculty will have decided and made public the list of groups, schedule and rooms for each course, as well as the teaching methods, so that students have all necessary information in order to complete their registration. This information can be accessed through the following links:
  2. Schedules for courses have been programmed so that students need to come to the Faculty to attend face-to-face classes the fewer number of days per week possible.
  3. The teaching for each course will include theoretical, theoretical-practical (problems), and practical activities (problem and computer laboratories), and each activity will be held face-to-face or online. Online teaching will be offered to whole groups and face-to-face teaching to subgroups.
  4. The number of teaching hours offered to students for each course will be specified in GRAD (see the links given in item 1). In general terms, 25% of the teaching hours will correspond to face-to-face lectures. For first-year undergraduate courses and master’s courses, the amount of face-to-face teaching will be more than 25% and, if possible, it will reach 50%.
  5. Face-to-face classes will be dedicated to teaching and evaluation activities, according to the course curriculum and giving preference to practical or theoretical-practical activities. Theoretical lectures will be offered mainly online.
  6. Computer practice sessions will be organised online, and laboratory apps will be shared online if feasible.

Link to the document approved by the Faculty Board on June 22, 2020 (English translation)

Further sanitary instructions are specified in the Health Protection Protocol of the Faculty and the Pla de contingència de la Universitat de Barcelona.