MCH CONTINUES ONLINE AND ITS CALENDAR HAS BEEN ADJUSTED TO REACT TO THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

Following the instructions of the authorities in Madrid, all face-to-face MCH2020 lectures have been suspended since last Wednesday, March 11th 2020, due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, MCH 2020 has successfully moved to an online teaching system, following the initially planned schedule for those first days, maintaining the high quality that characterizes it and even implementing some improvements.

We want to express our gratitude to all of those people who are contributing to successfully overcome this difficult situation (MCH faculty, participants and staff). Their support and understanding are being essential in this process of adaptation we are all facing. We are proud to say that we have not missed a single lecture, teaching online since the very first day of this drastic change.

Down below, we summarise some of the decisions taken towards the future development of the current edition:

• Every workshop will be carried out in a face-to-face format. The upcoming workshops are being postponed to the months of June, July and September, when this health emergency is expected to be over. The calendar is being modified to ensure that participants have the chance to work hands on with the workshop leaders in Madrid. This issue has been one of our priorities.
• Currently and till the end of May, lectures will continue in an online format. This will also happen in other Universities around the world, such as ETH in Zurich. Workshops and practical exercises will be developed later on, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
• Specialties having a very important practical load or those including projects' reviews, will also be re-scheduled to another month. That's the case of Construction & Technology, Urban Design & Landscape, the final presentation of Business, Management & International Activity and the two one-day study trips planned in Madrid and its surroundings (Sociology, Economy and Politics and Housing Projects).
• The study trip to Zurich will take place in June, as ETH Zurich would be closed if we keep the current dates, even if the flights had already been bought and the accommodation had already been booked (costs sponsored by MCH).
• The practical part of the Specialty "Low Cost and Emergency Housing", has been extended one more week, in order to compensate with time the possible difficulties that may arise due to the online projects' reviews.
• Listening to the inputs and suggestions offered by the MCH2020 participants, lectures are being spaced out throughout the day, to enable longer breaks and to reduce participants' exposure to screens during long periods of time. The online talks are being recorded, so that they can be downloaded and reviewed later.
• Both the MCH2020 participants and the MCH staff have immediately decided to #stayathome, following the recommendations of the Madrid authorities. This is an important action to protect everybody's health and also to prevent the virus from a faster spreading.