I am addressing all of you, students of the Bachelor's degree course in Biomedical Engineering, to provide you with some information on how the teaching activities will take place in the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021.
Given the experience with the semester just ended, we lecturers believe that attending university cannot be reduced to taking lessons from home. The relationship and personal interaction with the teacher and the other students are essential elements of the university experience. This aspect is particularly delicate for those of you who are starting university this year and have already had to experience distance learning in the second part of the school year just ended.
For this reason, we intend to resume teaching in presence as much as possible, in full compliance with all safety regulations.
Here is how we will do it. The spacing rules require that classrooms be occupied at no more than 20-30% of their capacity. In practice only the larger classrooms will be usable, therefore it will not be possible to offer all classes in presence.
Our degree program has a large number of students. We have reorganized the calendar of classes in order to offer at least 2-3 courses in presence for each course year. All the other courses will be offered in distance learning modality.
To comply with the distancing requirements, for each year of the course we will split all classes into 2-3 groups, who will be offered the same teaching activities (lessons, exercises) on different days and times. In practice during the week you will come to the university to attend classes only for a few days or half days, and you will follow the remaining classes from home.
We can guarantee everyone the opportunity to attend classes in person, but we are aware that some of you may prefer to attend classes remotely. We will guarantee this option as all the activities which will take place in presence will also be streamed (Microsoft Teams). Each classroom will be equipped with a tilt-and-zoom camera aimed at the teacher and the blackboard. Individual teachers may decide whether to make the recordings available off-line.
This is a significant burden for us teachers, especially those who teach in the early years with the larger classes, but we consider it necessary to offer quality training.
Of course, if the situation will get worse, all teaching will switch to 100% distance modality as in the last semester.
Before the classes begin, we will ask each of you to express your intentionon whether or not to participate in in-presence classes. Based on this option, we will form groups, valid throughout the year, who will attend classes on different days.
Details of the class hours will be published shortly for each year of the course.
For all training activities to be carried out in safe conditions your responsibility and your cooperation will be essential.
During your stay in the university facilities, you will need to wear your face mask and to scrupulously respect all the procedures that will be communicated to you.
Happy holidays and see you in September!
Vittorio Sanguineti
Coordinator of the degree course in Biomedical Engineering