Watch here a useful guide that will help you ensure you are taking the right actions at the right time (eg. thinking about applying for a study visa, accommodation, health insurance, etc). The topic of online classes and in person attendance is also covered but please refer to the following points of the FAQs for further details.

Each classroom will have a limited capacity in accordance with current legislation and the Università Cattolica’s health and safety protocols, in order to guarantee social distancing. Each class room with fixed desks will have coloured stickers indicating the places available and the ones not to be used. In classrooms with removeable furniture, the number of seats present will be limited. 
The University will be able to reorganise the classrooms during the term, according to any changes in the regulations.
Each building will be assigned a maximum number of persons present (students, lecturers and administrative staff) in order to respect the regulations on social distancing. The numbers will take into account the days’ programme (see points 4 and 5). 
Turnstiles will not be installed at the entrance to each building, in order to avoid crowding; access will simply be controlled by a traffic counter monitoring the number of persons entering and cameras equipped with heat sensors. Security staff will be present at all times.
Entrance and exit times will be staggered and routes within the university buildings and access to the classrooms will be varied in order to maintain social distancing.
Students who have completed their didactic activities in the university building and have no further appointments (e.g.: library, meetings with lecturers) are asked to leave promptly, so that other students who want to attend lessons can enter, in accordance with the maximum number of accesses.

Yes, even though you may not be present on campus, the classroom lessons will be broadcast live in streaming and a recording will be available online from the first day of the lessons.

Each classroom in the university will be equipped with auto-tracking cameras, so that the lecturer can decide whether to face the camera seated at the desk to film the whiteboard, or to speak while moving about the room.

Four online teaching scenarios have been defined: 

Dual mode: the lecture is present in the classroom with some students in presence and others connected remotely. The lesson will be available in streaming and will be recorded and released on Blackboard after the lesson, for students who are not present.

Online interactive lecture: the lecturer will not be present in the classroom, but in accordance with the timetable, they will broadcast for all the students who use the virtual classroom platform. The lecture will be available as a video file on Blackboard after the lesson.

Talking head: the teacher records the lesson in advance and releases it in his/her Blackboard. 

Voice-over presentation: the teacher creates audio content, slides with audio comment and/or podcast, and releases the material in his/her Blackboard course so that students can view and listen to it.

Each Faculty, according to its internal organisation and its teaching activities, has decided which of the four types of lecture will be made available and to what extent (see point 2).
The distribution of the types of lecture during the year will be decided by the lecturer: some will choose a standard method of teaching for the academic year. Others have decided to concentrate their presence in the classroom in the first phase, with a gradual transfer to online teaching. Yet others will begin in the classroom, continuing online and returning to the classroom just before the examinations. Some courses will be held completely online. 

The first term will be divided into two phases, the first phase will begin with the start of lessons (see the start date for your Faculty) and will end around October 20th. The second phase will run from the end of October to the end of the term (end of December).

All students enrolled at the University, except for those who state that they will not be attending lectures, will be divided into groups (without considering the faculty to which they belong). The groups will make it possible to limit the number of students who enter the university buildings on a given day, in accordance with regulations on social distancing.
Each group will be able to enter the university buildings only on the set days: they will therefore have access to the classroom lessons for that day and to all the university services: offices, library, etc. It will be necessary to book the university services.
For example, the group #1 will have access to the campus, to the classrooms and the university services on Monday September 7th, the start date for lessons. On Tuesday September 8th #2 will have access, Wednesday September 9th group #3 and so on, until the cycle starts again with group #1.

During the first phase, which will end in late October, you will be required to present your study plan, in which you indicate the lessons you want to attend. Then, from November to the end of term (and probably for the entire academic year) the second phase will be underway, and rather than being assigned to a group, you will be able to book a place in the classroom using the ICatt App with a check-in function (details will be supplied at a later date). Classroom maximum capacity will be assigned on the basis of past attendance numbers and the number of students enrolled for classes, in order to allocate the greatest number of places possible, while respecting the social distancing measures.

On the ICatt App you will find information about the group you belong to and your timetable for lectures, organised as a daily diary and including all the following information:

• date;
• start time for the lesson;
• end time for the lesson;
• method of teaching: if the lecturer will be in the classroom (mode #1) the name of the classroom will be given;
• in the other three cases (online courses) you will see ‘online lesson’.

 
Your timetable will also show how the lecturer has decided to organise the lessons for the entire academic year.

In order to accommodate students who have free periods between lessons on the same day, particularly during the first phase, the university will make unused classrooms available to students at university. The rooms will be organised so that it is possible to maintain social distancing while studying individually or following online lessons on a personal device. After their lessons and appointments, students are asked to leave the building, in order to limit the number of persons present and allow other groups to enter.

In recent months, the University has carried out significant work on the network infrastructures. The transmission medium has been upgraded and we are ready. We have already been successfully testing the broadcasting of online material, lessons and examinations (both midterm and graduation) on Microsoft Teams since the end of February 2020.
We would ask you to ensure that you have a suitable Internet connection and that your device(s) are operational. Should you have any technical problems during live streaming of lessons, don’t worry, the lesson will be recorded and you can watch it at a later date.