Academy of Architecture
Logo USI
Italiano

Teaching in the time of Coronavirus

Institutional Communication Service

27 August 2020

AUTUMN SEMESTER 2020-2021

Regarding the autumn semester 2020-2021, USI has decided that:

1. The autumn semester will, as far as possible, take place on the campuses.

2. Classes schedule will be extended to include - if necessary - also Saturdays.

Health regulations require a significant "social distance" to be maintained, which calls for the use of much larger classrooms with respect to the number of students. This requires an optimisation of the use of space.

3. Courses will take place in mixed mode: in attendance and online (usually 50% - 50%)

The availability of spaces does not allow, under the established requirements, to carry out all the courses in presence. Moreover, and more importantly, the situation is still very volatile, and it is possible that several people may not be able to attend courses on campuses for health and visa issues, due to decisions of their national authorities, or other valid reasons. The modalities and applications of this principle will be communicated in the near future to lecturers and students. 

4. Those who, for legitimate reasons, will not be able to attend classes on campus will be given support online in order to complete the semester.

USI aims to ensure the highest quality of teaching and learning for all students, including those who are temporarily or for the entire semester unable to attend classes in person.

To optimise the use of the classrooms and the students’ experience, USI-Com and USI-Eco courses will alternate, on a weekly basis, between campus presence and online training, according to the following directions:

  • Each course begins and ends in attendance.
  • In weeks when there is no classroom training, course content and activities shall be delivered online, (mainly) asynchronously, and available at the beginning of the week.
  • For those who cannot join the classroom, the content and activities of the classroom hours will also be offered online, by the end of the week.

In the attached document you can find some suggestions and recommendations on the teaching activities of the in attendance weeks and of the online weeks.

EXAMS OF AUTUMN SESSION 2020

Also the exams scheduled for the autumn session of the academic year 2019-20 will be held digitally: this was established by a decision of the USI Management Committee that has been ratified on Thursday, 18 June, 2020 by the Academic Senate.

The Directive - available here - defines three specific examination procedures: "open book", oral or quiz, as well as the timing and the measures that were defined. 

EXAMS OF SUMMER SESSION 2020

The exams scheduled for the summer session of the academic year 2019-20 will be held digitally: this was established by a decision of the USI Management Committee that has been ratified on Friday, 17 April, 2020 by the Academic Senate.

Also for the autumn session, the Directive - available here - defines three specific examination procedures: "open book", oral or quiz. The timing and measures were defined by weighing on the one hand the quality and rigour required for evaluation, and on the other hand the very particular conditions in which part of the semester was held, envisaging some solutions in the interest of the students.

The document also includes the reasons that led to this choice, which was drawn up in favour of the students and aimed at ensuring equal treatment, while protecting the health of the academic community as a whole. To date, it is impossible to determine the conditions under which it will be possible to access the campuses on the scheduled dates and, even if access were to be granted, new restrictive health measures could come into force at any time, making it difficult to carry out exams in person. In addition to this, several members of the community may - for different reasons - have not yet regained full autonomy to travel.
 

Supporting tools and initiatives for the preparation of online exams:

Manuals

Manuals for creating and managing online exams in the three allowed modes (oral exam, quiz and assignment/open book) have been published on the iCorsi manuals page: https://www.icorsi.ch/mod/folder/view.php?id=109435.

Oral exams

  • Teams for oral exams on Microsoft Teams will be created once exam registrations for students are closed.
  • If you need help to test the tools (webcam, microphone, Teams, ...) or if you want to try or simulate an oral exam with Microsoft Teams, please announce yourself as soon as possible by e-mail to the following addresses:
    Lugano Campus Teachers: [email protected]  
    Mendrisio Campus Teachers: [email protected]
    You will be then contacted by a collaborator of the IT Service to make an appointment of about 15 minutes.

Written exams

  • The "Exam courses" for each written exam (quiz or assignment/open book) have been created on iCorsi; the Exam-courses will remain hidden to students until the day of the exam. In this course, teachers can create their exam, following the instructions in the manuals. Each exam will be assigned to an eLab collaborator, who will assist the teachers in the implementation of the exam on iCorsi.

 

Update of 7 April

At its meeting on April 6, the Management Committee of USI has decided the following:

  • Distance learning will continue until the end of the semester
  • Traditions and relations with those close to us, families and stakeholders, will be kept alive by organising remote but interactive graduation ceremonies and the  Dies academicus will be prepared and made accessible in deferred time.
  • Short video presentations of our activities, a virtual tour of the campuses and interactions with those in charge of the training programs will be ensured for future students and for those who are interested in USI.
  • Our offer of scholarships will be enhanced in order to support those who want to study at USI and will be faced with difficulties.

Four are the principles that guide USI in its decisions:

  • Protect the safety of our academic community.
  • Seek solutions that will give continuity to our Institution, to contribute to preserving the social fabric.
  • Ensuring the academic offer even in such difficult and uncertain environment
  • Adhere to the decisions of the competent public authorities

 

Some useful suggestions from the Pro-Rector for Education and Students' Experience Lorenzo Cantoni for effective distance learning

GENERAL ADVICE

Mode

  • Fully online
  • Mainly asynchronous
  • “Temporal”: learning resources are released according to the course timetable, week by week; possible synchronous sessions within the timetable

We recommend

  • Videos synchronized with slides (using Panopto) or only videos + slides
  • If possible, max. 20 minutes for 1 hour in class (if possible, divided into more than one video)
  • Assign readings, exercises, discussions, quizzes, ... 

We support

  • Coaching and help-desk via e-mail ([email protected]) or phone +41 (0)58 666 4760
  • Two recording rooms have been equipped in Lugano and one in Mendrisio. If you want to book a room, send an e-mail to [email protected] (as a rule, eLab provides only remote support; only in exceptional cases, on specific requests from teachers, the presence of an eLab collaborator in the room can be guaranteed).

Always use the Announcements forum of iCorsi to promptly inform students about the support activities you have decided to implement.
Please avoid as much as possible sending individual emails.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

#USIeLearning: in the space #USIeLearning iniCorsi, which will be constantly updated, you can find a videomessage by Lorenzo Cantoni, Pro-Rector for education and students' experience, and some useful suggestions and resources for online teaching: https://www.icorsi.ch/course/view.php?id=9050

Panopto: this tool is useful to record from home or office your slides with an audio commentary, and then make them available to students via a link to be published on iCorsi.

Screencast-o-matic: this tool is useful to quickly create short videos of your slides with an audio commentary (videos of max. 15 minutes in the free version). 

Microsoft Teams: this tool is useful to broadcast live your lesson, from USI or from home. 

You can find the user's handbooks for Panopto, Screencast-o-matic and MS Teams on the manuals' page of iCorsi (constantly updated): https://www.icorsi.ch/mod/folder/view.php?id=109435

 

DISTANCE LEARNING

What can I do?

1. Check that all materials are duly uploaded on iCorsi

2. Record audio and/or video of your lesson from home:

  • Create short audio/videos (from 3 to 10 minutes, indicatively) with the main contents of your lesson, to be shared on iCorsi
  • Create slides with audio comment with Panopto or Screencast-o-matic, to be shared on iCorsi
  • Broadcast your lesson live via web conferencing systems, like Skype, Microsoft Teams, …

2. Assign tasks to be carried out long distance:

  • Assign students additional bibliographic materials (books, book chapters, papers, etc.)
  • Assign students additional digital learning materials: online articles, videos (e.g. TED Talks or others), online courses (MOOCs) or parts of courses, etc.
  • Propose discussions and Q&A sessions via Skype (synchronous) or via forums on iCorsi (asynchronous)
  • Have students collaboratively create online concept maps on course content (remote group work) via Mindmeister
  • Propose individual or group activities of reflection / reflective practice (e.g.: journal or diary) to students, to be published and shared on the ePortfolio platform
  • Create self-assessment exercises for students as quizzes on iCorsi
  • Other… be creative!

 

HOW CAN I...

Print