EDHEC overcomes the challenge of 100% online classes in all programmes
After leaving the time for students to organise themselves and return home after confinement was announced on 16 March, EDHEC ensured the continuity of all academic activity at distance for all its programmes and on its four academic campuses (Lille, Nice, Paris and London), as early as 25 March, with plans to continue until the end of the academic year.
EDHEC is capitalising on an innovation strategy set up several years ago, particularly in terms of the educational experience. “Thanks to technological choices made in recent years, EDHEC was already primed to switch to 100% online mode, thanks to our more-than 20-year partnership with Blackboard, our Cloud infrastructure and virtual classroom and remote testing integration tools, as well as online support and monitoring of learning data. All these technologies had been tried and tested over the last two years, based on a continuous test & learn approach involving professors and students”, explains Anne Zuccarelli, Associate Dean, Educational Experience & Operations.
15,000 hours of online activities every day
EDHEC managed to perform this switch to 100% online in just one week, thanks to incredible internal support and an unprecedented apparatus embracing:
- A pedagogical innovation laboratory run by a team of six
- The creation of four task forces of 38 people, comprising professors, programme directors, the pedagogical innovation laboratory and support services like the HUB (focused on students), and the IT department
- The creation of two distance-teaching support units for teaching personnel and students
- The creation of a pool of 20 expert professors to assist their peers
EDHEC provided close to 150 accelerated training sessions for teaching personnel over the previous two months, plus 50 two-day sessions for students.
Right from day one, close to 4,000 students connected from over 50 different countries, with 350 virtual classes delivered at distance by 90 teachers. In all, this offer represents some 15,000 hours of widely varied online activities, spanning virtual classes, forums, group work, online work and other activities. And EDHEC continued to innovate in the second week, launching an online business game for close to 800 students in the second year of the School’s BBA and based on two campuses.
“In leveraging EDHEC’s longstanding know-how - acquired through the likes of the BBA Online created in 2011 or the more recent EDHEC Online unit- we were immediately carried by a wave of energy and faultless commitment on the part of EDHEC professors and support teams that enabled us to succeed with the challenge of going 100% online in just a week. By doing so, we are making sure that all our students can continue their academic studies at distance, at home and in security, often in close proximity to their families, and now all around the world. This shows how education can remain a beacon in this exceptional period”, underlines Emmanuel Métais, Dean of EDHEC Business School.
EDHEC’s distance-teaching in figures
Every day:
- 350 virtual classes open on average
- Between 3,500 and 4,000 students connected
- 15,000 hours of activities offered
- Between 90 and 100 trainers on average
- 200,000 pages viewed
In preparation:
- 50 training sessions for students
- 150 training sessions for professors (100 in groups and 50 individual tests)
