Coronavirus: With Online Classes, Even Behind Closed Doors #WeAreOpen
#WeAreOpen. This motto has often resonated at Bocconi University since the inauguration of the academic year and the new urban campus designed by SANAA. But now, experiencing a full-blown coronavirus alert, it has taken on an even deeper meaning. Just 36 hours after the suspension of on-campus teaching, Bocconi reopened its doors with an online teaching system that, starting with SDA Bocconi's MBA students on the morning of Monday 24 February, throughout the week gradually involved the entire campus, with livestreamed lectures, videotaped courses, 'enhanced' syllabi and a general redefinition of class work.
A system that, yes, has been set up to cope with these events, but which hinges on a structure developed over the years: even before the coronavirus, 30% of the courses taught at the University included activities carried out digitally. This is all part of one idea: that technology helps solve problems and convey information, but it must be combined with a physical work experience and interaction between students and faculty for information to become true knowledge. And, these days, this is precisely what Bocconi's e-learning machine has leveraged.
"Classrooms, network infrastructures and applications, as well as the processes to manage them, were already in place," says Leonardo Caporarello, Director of BUILT, Bocconi University Innovations in Learning and Teaching. In fact, Bocconi teaching takes advantage of a learning ecosystem which uses the Blackboard platform as its foundation: "This allows faculty and students to design and create a learning path using different systems, for both synchronous teaching (such as livestreamed lectures, in real time), and asynchronous teaching, for example by recording videos of lectures," explains Caporarello. "The system's immediacy and ease of use has made it truly effective for students, because what matters most is not the tool itself, but the way in which interaction is enabled."
In this situation, then, "The machine started up very well," adds the Dean of the Undergraduate School, Annalisa Prencipe. "We consulted constantly with student representatives and, together with the Rector, we got them involved immediately to understand their point of view. Students and faculty have worked well together towards a common goal."
It has been a joint effort to keep the doors of the University open virtually. "E-learning is helping us make sure we don't have to disrupt our daily lives and can continue to experience life as students," says Tereza Boynova. A Zimbabwean student enrolled in the Bachelor in International Economics and Management, she is currently attending 5 distance learning courses. "The platform works well and simulates different aspects of the class. Faculty have been very helpful and responsive to our needs." Also, distance learning "allows you to decide what to do with your time: to never miss classes but organize your days however you want," comments Abel Poghosyan, an Armenian student enrolled in the MSc in Economic and Social Sciences.
And so, in the wake of the hashtag #MilanoNonSiFerma (Milan Never Stops), students launched their very own personal motto on social media: #BocconiNonSiFerma (Bocconi Never Stops).