Luiss: Over 7,000 live lectures delivered, with approximately 45.5 million connections and 400 new distance learning graduates. Over 550 online midterm exams

Luiss doesn’t stop: this is the claim of the distance learning plan that the university put in place the day after the Prime Ministerial Decree was implemented. Students had the opportunity to follow live lectures in real time, with professors connecting from campus classrooms during the first week and then from home. In fact, Luiss has ensured that all classes are delivered synchronously.

And for the first time, the University is offering its students the opportunity to take over 550 midterm exams remotely.

Over the past week, for the first time, all exams were conducted via the Luiss Learn and exam.net platforms, in conjunction with Cisco Webex, involving nearly 9,500 students.

As for the classes, over 7,000 classes were activated, with more than 14,000 hours of instruction, to ensure the continuity of teaching. This generated over 45 million connections, again thanks to the Cisco Webex digital platform, allowing students not only to follow the courses but also to actively participate. With over 550 faculty members available and the platform's built-in digital interaction tools, professors have surprisingly seen engagement and interaction that is sometimes even higher than in face-to-face classes.

“We went one step further,” says Luiss's General Director, Giovanni Lo Storto. “We chose not to record the lessons, but to go live immediately with all the faculty so as not to interrupt the in-person relationship, even if it's virtual. I've seen students posting on social media: Luiss isn't stopping. It's true: Luiss isn't stopping, and none of our lives have to stop.”

“We are working hard around the world, and particularly in Italy, to help mitigate the impact of the measures needed to contain the coronavirus emergency. We are making our technologies and expertise available to meet the needs of individuals, our employees, and businesses.   It gives us great satisfaction that, through our Cisco Webex collaboration platform, we've enabled a service that will provide educational continuity to thousands of students during this time,”says Agostino Santoni, CEO of Cisco Italy.

In addition to teaching, graduation ceremonies are also taking place and will continue to be held online. Neither candidates nor professors can conduct graduation discussions in person. With an average of 30 candidates per day, nearly 400 students will graduate remotely, all via a web streaming connection from home. This includes the members of the examining committee, who will also provide their final grades remotely. For students who have returned to their home countries, particularly Chinese graduates who have gone back to China, candidates will still present their work online via WeChat.

Luiss has also made its orientation days available and accessible digitally. Families will be able to comfortably follow presentations of the educational offerings from home and interact with course coordinators in real time. Additionally, among the most technologically advanced innovations, starting this year, students will be able to conveniently explore the entire Luiss campus from home by connecting to a dedicated link. They can tour the various locations with the help of the Double robot, an autonomous device that offers a truly personal, 360-degree virtual tour, as if they were physically present at the university.