A year on from the start of the health crisis, many parents and students are asking questions about schools, the way studies are being monitored, whether classes are being kept up, and the support our schools have put in place.
We decided to put a few questions on this subject to Lucie Baudouin, director of Digital Campus Rennes.
Are the academic progress meetings still going ahead?
Lucie Baudouin, the director of Digital Campus, tells us:
“On the academic side, our lecturers have had to adapt their course content to make it better suited to the remote format. Right from the September start of term, Maxime James, our academic coordinator, made a habit of holding regular teaching meetings with the lecturers so that we could maintain the connection that exists with them in normal times.
In the same way, the individual academic progress meetings with our students are still held twice a year.”
And how are work placements and apprenticeships being handled?
L.B. “Digital Campus Rennes has decided to keep up its support for finding placements. That is a real advantage, because Brittany is a very dynamic region when it comes to employment.”
Lucie Baudouin tells us that she has kept in regular contact with the school’s partner companies. Today, she is able to tell us that the pool of placements remains very high for this geographical area. She also explains that the hardest part has been keeping students motivated and reassuring them remotely that they will find apprenticeship placements despite the health conditions.
And how do you join Digital Campus during a health crisis?
L.B. “From the very start of the first lockdown, Digital Campus Rennes adapted its admissions to a remote format. Students were able to keep applying and being admitted to the school, because video calls make it possible to organise admission interviews.”
As for visits, these are kept up before or after the entrance exam so that candidates can get a better feel for the environment they will be working in.
A new format has also been created for open days: these are walkthroughs filmed with a shoulder-mounted camera. One-to-one meetings are kept up by phone or on site. A genuinely personal moment that really reflects the DNA of Digital Campus.
Today, the continuity arrangements are in place, but we cannot wait to get back to normal; what remains frustrating is that distance cuts off this personal, one-to-one approach.
On the company side, what arrangements have been created for apprenticeship students?
Digital Campus Rennes has set up webinars with companies to support them better and to talk with them about what was being done on the academic side at the school. For its youngest students, Digital Campus Rennes launched advice sessions to help them organise their lives while working from home. But the team remains realistic: “We know that context plays a big part, because a student who lives alone, or with one parent out of work, may find it easier to drop out than a student who is in a family with parents who are still going out to work, or with brothers and sisters who are still going to school, because that keeps them in a certain rhythm.”
Any final words, Lucie?
L.B. “Digital Campus Rennes has rolled out plenty of tools to make up for remote learning, but nothing beats being on campus.”
The school is therefore getting ready to support the return to on-campus learning at the September start of term. We know that students who have been through a long period of remote learning will need to readjust to being on campus. And conversely, we are going to teach our students to make sensible use of working from home, because there will be more and more remote learning in our programmes.”