The effects of the Covid-19 crisis are still influencing many aspects of our everyday lives. Although there are is still uncertainty hovering over the coming months, the education sector is proving to be resilient. The VIU staff is working hard to ensure that the next semester of the Globalization Program is as much as possible as it used to be, but with added flexibility for students and professors, while introducing innovation to the teaching.
After an extraordinary meeting of the Academic Council, it was decided that the Fall 2020 semester will be held in a blended format, partially online and partially on campus.
The academic activities will start as planned on September 7 but will be held remotely until September 27. This means that the orientation week and the first two weeks of classes will be held online for all students. In that period the students will participate in a new Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange project to engage in discussion and debate on topics of common interest.
If the situation in Italy remains as it is now (relatively few cases of Covid), the on-campus phase will start on Monday, September 28, and regularly continue until December 18. However, if at any time the situation in the country or in the region gets worse and local or national authorities were to introduce another lockdown, we will have to move all the courses online.
Considering the uncertain situation regarding Covid-19 and the different stages that the countries represented in VIU activities are going through, VIU decided to allow maximum flexibility to students and professors willing to participate in the semester but unable to come to Venice at the end of September due to governmental or university travel restrictions or health concerns.
For this reason, some of the courses will be taught entirely remotely. All of the details are published in the course list.
Students who are unable to travel will be able to participate in the courses, through a combination of live participation via video link, participation in forum discussions, and access to recordings of the classes on the elearning platform.
Safety protocols and emergency planning are being prepared with the support of our usual Health and Safety consultants and will be published on our website presently. The protocols will provide for safe access to VIU including the classrooms and offices.
Contingency planning is underway for various scenarios including a second wave in Italy or a case of Covid-19 within the VIU community (students, professors, or staff).
