Rules to Follow Due to the Pandemic and the Hybrid Education Model

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that we comply as fully as possible with the measures recommended by the competent institutions and boards. Protecting public and human health is the responsibility of all of us as responsible individuals, citizens and members of the BAU community. For more than a year and a half, we have been kept apart from one another by physical distance. We are happy to come together again with hybrid education under pandemic conditions in the 2021–2022 academic year. To ensure the continuity of this togetherness:

1. Our first priority is your health. We attach great importance to all our employees and students being vaccinated. As the first university to set up vaccination points on its premises, we welcome our students who have not yet been vaccinated to our vaccination points on a voluntary basis. Even if we are vaccinated, mask, distance and hygiene rules must be followed as strictly as possible. Complying with the measures in classrooms, corridors and the library is mandatory for the health of us all.

2. To avoid problems when entering the campuses, you must have registered your indefinite HES codes in your profile on st.bau.edu.tr at least 6 hours before entering the campus. In this way, your HES codes will be integrated with your university ID cards. Thanks to our system, which is integrated with the Ministry of Health system, vaccination and PCR test information has been uploaded to your ID cards together with your HES codes for campus entry. These checks are carried out when you scan your student card at the turnstile. If you experience any problems, you can contact security. We monitor the HES codes and risk status of our students and employees every day through the Ministry of Health System.

3. During this process, our university established Türkiye's first Hybrid Education Center, increased its investments in technological infrastructure and continues to lead the way with HyFlex classrooms and the FlexiBAU Education Model.

4. The way courses are delivered may vary by faculty due to differences in fields of expertise. Please follow the announcements made by your academic unit carefully.

5. Final, resit and single-course exams will be held in person on our campuses, and information on the methods of other assessment tools will be determined by the course instructor and announced in the syllabus.

6. The S/R grade conversion was a special grade applicable only to the spring semester and summer school of the 2019–2020 academic year and to the 2020–2021 academic year. It will not be applied in the 2021–2022 academic year or thereafter.

7. In line with the criteria set by the Scientific Advisory Boards, the capacity of reduced-density classrooms at our University is half of the maximum classroom capacity. The reduced capacity of each classroom has been determined and posted at classroom entrances.

8. Seating arrangements in classrooms have been set according to the safe distance rule, and you, our students, are expected to follow these rules. It is important that students who do not have a class do not enter classrooms. This is not a choice but a requirement due to the pandemic. Our students will not remove their masks during classes; however, our faculty members may remove their masks while teaching, if they wish, provided they remain at a safe distance.

9. In the event of a case in a classroom, action will be taken within the framework of the rules set by our Scientific Advisory Board for the health and safety of us all.

10. In the hybrid model, the course will be taught in person in the classroom while, at the same time, our students will be able to attend the course synchronously and online. Accordingly, some of our courses will be taught entirely online and our other courses will be delivered in hybrid format (a combination of in-person and online). Our students can see in the syllabi whether their courses are hybrid or entirely online. Please review your syllabi carefully in the first week. Remember that it is your responsibility to follow the syllabus rules.

11. In classes held in reduced-density classrooms due to the pandemic, our students will attend classes in person in some weeks and online in others. The relevant guidance will be provided by the course instructor. For example, taking class sizes and room capacities into account, students may be divided into two groups and attend in-person classes every other week.

12. Students will be marked present in person in the weeks they are required to attend in person and online in the weeks they are required to attend online. Details on class attendance will be explained in the syllabi, and the necessary announcements will be made to students by the course instructor.

13. Each class session will last a maximum of 45 minutes. During in-person education, there will be no block classes, and all students are advised to go outside into the open air at the end of each class. With this practice, the building will be ventilated by opening the windows during breaks.

14. In online classes, the rule of 50 minutes of class and a 10-minute break will continue, and there will be no restriction on block classes. The first rule of interaction is that all parties are open to communication. To increase interaction and your focus in hybrid and online classes, it is mandatory for our students to turn on their cameras during classes. Our students are expected to be in an environment ready for following the class (with a fixed, plain background). "Bring Your Own Device Classrooms" have been set up on our campuses to enable you to attend your online classes.

15. The online communication channels we have been using throughout the pandemic will remain open during this period. Even though we are all on campus, you can hold online meetings with all our academic and administrative units.

Depending on the course of the pandemic, the above decisions may change in line with decisions and guidance from the competent authorities to which we are subject. Reminding you once again that our first priority is the physical, mental and emotional health of the BAU Family, we wish you all a healthy and successful semester.

You can contact the BAU Student Solution Center at 444 28 64 or submit your requests via help.bau.edu.tr .