Estonian Business School made a decision on 12 March to close its campuses in Tallinn and Helsinki and transfer 1,400 university students and 120 secondary school students to virtual studies from 16 March. The studies are held online and physical premises closed until further notice. The goal of EBS was to continue studies uninterruptedly and according to the existing time-table, which was successfully managed in just three days.
The first step after the decision made by the management of EBS was assembling a support team consisting of IT specialists and several other members of non-academic staff to help lecturers and students smoothly continue working online via Canvas platform. This included group workshops and ongoing personal trainings for mastering the technical aspects and possibilities of Canvas. It took six months for Estonian Business School to choose a suitable virtual learning platform in 2017. In practice this meant that after the decision to make the transition to virtual studies, none of the students or teaching staff at EBS had to install and learn to use a single new piece of software, ask for external assistance or make any changes to their timetables. Lectures, seminars and workshops are all taking place at the scheduled times and to the planned volume, and all of them can be watched back.
By the end of first week of virtual studies (16-22 March 2020), 136 virtual lectures were held by 50 lecturers. By today, 460+ virtual lectures have been held by 64 lecturers and 10+ guest lecturers and 1,300+ students, both in Tallinn and Helsinki campuses.
Virtual studies have shown maximum student engagement in online lectures. The students’ feedback has been very good on the platform, communications from university and EBS High School and positive attitude from the lecturers, as well as sticking to the existing timetable.
Due to the ongoing emergency situation declared in the whole Estonia, education facilites are closed at least until the 1 May 2020. Since the future state of things is unclear, EBS is ready to finish the semester virtually by conducting exams, thesis defences, admissions interviews and even the graduation ceremony online.
The key takeaways from this unprecedented situation are clear decisions, fast communication, keeping track of the processes and adjusting as necessary , asking for feedback from everyone involved, keeping up the high spirits in times of difficulty and expressing thanks to the right people for the right things. A suitable platform comes in handy, where students can find everything they need: a calendar, the learning outcomes, the study programme, the teaching materials, feedback options, assessment, group discussions, recorded lectures, recommended reading and more. Lecturers should be able to share their slides, track participants, use video, and receive instantly comments and questions from the students. This makes the study process interactive and effective.
Read more at www.ebs.ee
Photo: EBS Chancellor Mart Habakuk