Third and fourth-year students in the School of English will only have in-person classes for the first two weeks and last two weeks of first semester. Classes will be fully online for the rest of the remainder of the semester.
In an email to third and fourth-year English students, the School’s Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Brendan O’Connell added that in “a small number of cases, modules will be taught online-only”.
“With the exception of the 5 ECTS Junior Sophister Single Honors options, all Sophister options are scheduled for two hours per week”, O’Connell said. “In the weeks in which teaching is delivered online, it is anticipated that no more than one hour will be conducted synchronously through real-time virtual classrooms.”
The rest of students’ class time will be taken up with “asynchronous teaching”, which may include “short recorded lectures, narrated powerpoint presentations, discussion boards”.
In accordance with new government regulations, students will have to wear face masks during all teaching and learning events, in the Library and in other public spaces like the Buttery and the Book of Kells.
Staff have been advised to wear visors instead of masks, in order to help them communicate more clearly.
Face masks will not be mandatory for students who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering “without severe distress” based on health grounds.
Some students will be allowed to take all of their classes online. However, to do this, they have to apply to student cases, and will only be granted permission under “exceptional circumstances”, such as “financial hardship, underlying documented medical condition, immunocompromised and/or any disabled student requests”.
In an email to staff and students last week, Secretary to the College and Senior Lecturer Kevin MItchell said that “the University Council has mandated that as much face-to-face teaching as possible should be scheduled for all students”.
“It should be noted that such cases should be considered the exception rather than the norm and there will be no fee reduction for any student who is granted permission to attend wholly online”, they added.
Students’ timetables are to be published by 14th September at the latest.
