University of Ferrara: from emergency remote working to real Smart Working

5 August 2020

“I believe strongly in the nudging philosophy, in other words giving change a gentle nudge. I’m convinced that smart working is an unrepeatable occasion for taking our University along a pathway of modernisation, walking alongside the people that make it up”.

The Emilia-Romagna Smart Working interview with Prof. Enrico Deidda Gagliardo, Pro-rector of the University of Ferrara and Scientific Director of CERVAP.

The Estense University was in fact one of the first to go online, suspending all teaching activities in person from 24 February last. Behind this choice lies an organisation that is ready and resilient and which in 2016 had taken up in time the path of digitalisation and prepared itself to do so for smart working as well. The main implementations are as follows:

  • 95% of courses and 100% of degrees online during the COVID-19 emergency
  • e-learning platform strengthened
  • 24h Chatbot for student services
  • Fully digital secretariat
  • Plan for investments of over 800,000 euros into digital infrastructures
  • Continuous monitoring of performance with specific indicators

The aim will be to consolidate the trust relationship between the University and staff, because this is the cornerstone of smart working: that it is an “opportunity that creates innovation” but is above all an “act of reciprocal trust from the administration towards its collaborators, and vice versa”.

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