The Foundation Course (FC) is a pre-university program primarily aimed at prospective students coming from countries where the national schooling system does not meet the minimum requirements requested for higher education access in Italy andor with a not appropriate pre-academic education for the enrollment in an Italian or European University Degree Program. The FC of the University of Pisa, in its fifth edition, up to March 2020 had been always delivered in presence, but in the last year due the COVID-19 emergency it has been moved to online learning mode. In this paper, we describe the experience of transforming the FC, traditionally an on-campus program, to a distance learning modality, with the management and teaching problems arisen to cope with different time zones, the engagement of very young students, the gap in their basic knowledge, especially in scientific subject and technical problems. Despite all these issues, the online experience has been positive for several reasons that will be discussed in this paper. Thus, although online teaching was adopted as an emergency measure, we will certainly take advantage of this mode, along with an on-campus option, even when the pandemic is over, since it will make our FC more flexible and affordable for students.

Managing Students from 23 Different Countries in Distance Learning: The Foundation Course Experience of the University of Pisa

Arianna Biancani;Silvia Bruti;Paola Cappellini
;
Francesco Marcelloni;Arturo Marzano;Marco Polini;Chiara Roda;Adio Terranova
2022-01-01

Abstract

The Foundation Course (FC) is a pre-university program primarily aimed at prospective students coming from countries where the national schooling system does not meet the minimum requirements requested for higher education access in Italy andor with a not appropriate pre-academic education for the enrollment in an Italian or European University Degree Program. The FC of the University of Pisa, in its fifth edition, up to March 2020 had been always delivered in presence, but in the last year due the COVID-19 emergency it has been moved to online learning mode. In this paper, we describe the experience of transforming the FC, traditionally an on-campus program, to a distance learning modality, with the management and teaching problems arisen to cope with different time zones, the engagement of very young students, the gap in their basic knowledge, especially in scientific subject and technical problems. Despite all these issues, the online experience has been positive for several reasons that will be discussed in this paper. Thus, although online teaching was adopted as an emergency measure, we will certainly take advantage of this mode, along with an on-campus option, even when the pandemic is over, since it will make our FC more flexible and affordable for students.
2022
Biancani, Arianna; Bruti, Silvia; Cappellini, Paola; Marcelloni, Francesco; Marzano, Arturo; Polini, Marco; Roda, CHIARA MARIA ANGELA; Terranova, Adio
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/1132224
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