Covid-19: Educational continuity at IMT

It took but a few days for the schools of Institut Mines-Télécom to resume teaching via digital platforms. Some had even anticipated the necessity before the lockdown was imposed, and had prepared and equipped their teams with the means to work from home, while others suspended teaching on 3 March to enable their students to travel to appropriate accommodation.

The majority of schools were able to keep to their timetables and deliver most of their courses. Many lessons were delivered and followed in real time via various videoconferencing solutions, and the importance of being able to hear and converse with the teacher was underlined by many. Lessons were also recorded so that students could view them as often as necessary. The teaching community has worked hard to rise to the numerous challenges, such as orchestrating collaborative work from a distance.

Maintaining communication was made a priority, with each member of staff being assigned a group of students to monitor individually; there were also webinars with management, and virtual after-work events. Our educational support teams have also made a colossal contribution to safeguard this smooth transition to distance learning. The COMETE network (IMT’s educational support staff) offered advice and resources to help teachers master these new modes, and also provided a series of webinars, from 25 March, that were extremely well received by the teaching staff.