Nearly 20M Minutes of Video Lessons. The Balance Sheet of Online Teaching at Bocconi

DISTANCE LEARNING ENDS THE SEMESTER WITH OVER 10,000 VIDEOS UPLOADED AND 10,000 STUDENTS ATTENDING THE 8,500 LIVE STREAMED CLASS SESSIONS. THERE IS A LOT OF ORGANIZATIONAL WORK BEHIND THOSE NUMBERS, SAYS LEONARDO CAPORARELLO, RECTOR'S DELEGATE FOR ELEARNING

Now that the last online classes have finished, Bocconi drafts a balance sheet of these two and a half months of distance learning. Made operational in less than thirty-six hours, it capitalized on the experience already gained over the years by BUILT, Bocconi's remote learning division. The reality of online teaching is made clear by these numbers: almost 20 million minutes of video lessons streamed and stored, over 10 thousand videos uploaded (viewed more than 1,1 million times in total), 10,000 students attending at least one of the 8,500 live sessions offered by Bocconi faculty.

Behind the raw data there is an enormous amount of organizational work, which starts from listening to input from the parties involved, getting the service ready, and refining the response of the platform as teaching output occurs. "The overall balance sheet is overwhelmingly positive", explains Leonardo Caporarello, Delegate of the Rector for E-learning and head of Bocconi University Innovations in Learning and Teaching (BUILT). In particular, “The response of all the actors involved (faculty, students, staff) has been very fruitful and better than we could have expected. The way we have all collaborated at Bocconi is an excellent example of agile, cross-functional and cohesive teamwork.”

In addition to people's reactions, Caporarello takes stock of the aspects most related to technology and methodology: "With regard to the latter, previous experiments have led us to avoid adopting a single approach dictated from above. We focus on a method more based on listening, since teaching needs are often very different from one class to the other. The approach where you decide everything top-down is perhaps more efficient, but less inclusive."

Then there is the technological side: "Also in this case, previous experiences have been of great help", continues Caporarello. "We have set minimum standards internally and there has been a lot of directing work both to guarantee privacy and security and a high level of quality and usability." With virtual classes now off for the summer, BUILT is looking forward to the academic year that starts in September, thinking about what the new normal of teaching will be, in a phase where we will still have to deal with the rules of social distancing. "We are imagining and devising possible solutions. The idea is to have a model that, regardless of physical proximity, enables students to have effective interaction and constructive dialogue with the class instructor, as well as with each other.”

by Andrea Celauro
Translated by Alex Foti