- Sophie P
A new era of hybrid campus?
Graduation time!
The Graduation Ceremony took place last Wednesday 6/10 on one of the most iconic place in Europe: the Grand Place. We would like to congratulate all graduated students from the Solvay Brussels School. We wish them all the best for their professional career!
They will be our ambassadors representing the high quality of our educational programs. And of course, they will automatically be affiliated to our alumni organization offering many events and networking opportunities.
Credit: https://mijnplatteland.com/brussels/manneken/y2008/pix/dsc01211_m.jpg
Towards a new student experience: hybrid campus?
The new academic year has now been running for almost a month. During the pandemic, we completely shifted to remote courses. And during the academic year of 2020-21, we observed the restart of presential classes with strict restriction measures. While the vaccination campaign is ongoing, what can students and professors expect for the upcoming months? How could the universities convert the educational model to a more sustainable and resilient system able to resist the shock of future outbreaks?
Digital technologies have definitively supported companies to keep running the business activities while the pandemic froze the mobility of employees. With the current wave of digital transformation in private and public organizations, it is the right time to think about revisiting the educational system.
According to Harvard Business Review, a hybrid way of teaching students is not new at all. The University of Central Florida began with blended and online classes in the ‘90s. Today, 90% of 59.000 students are taking those classes in this university.
As Jeffrey and Cole said, we should see virtual and physical activities as complementary and not two separate fields. Let’s think about retails, either virtually through mobile application or in face-to-face, we do not make a significant distinction between both. What matters is to find the same content, at the same price, instantly.
Credit: ДмитрийЛаричев/Getty Images (https://hbr.org/2021/10/imagining-the-hybrid-college-campus)
A full hybrid campus may be the new future of universities and high schools. It could provide some advantages such as a more flexible, agile and personalized approach to support students, either for administrative tasks (e.g., admissions or financial aids) with a virtual secretary or for specific courses with virtual teaching assistants. Students could also have the possibility to combine on-site internships while taking online courses during flexible hours. It could speed-up the development of students by combining the theory of courses with real-life business cases from industries. With digital tools, professors could also be able to monitor the engagement rate of students during classes. They could receive online feedbacks and be able to refine their lessons during the academic year. Finally, universities could invite international professors to give virtual lessons without paying substantial accommodation fees. It could increase the quality of the educational program for students, expand network connections between universities, and share the knowledge across the world.
It’s an opportunity to leverage all digital technologies to enhance the student experience by shifting to a hybrid university campus. This approach would support a more sustainable and resilient educational model, similar in fact to what employees are currently living in many private and public organizations – a hybrid working model between our home and offices.
As a professor, or as a student, how do you see the future of education in universities and high schools?
Article written by Kevin MISSAULT (MSG 2021)