Bocconi Bit by Byte: Virtual College for High School Students

Bocconi Virtual College (https://college.virtualbocconi.com) has just been launched. It's an important initiative undertaken by Bocconi to encourage the diffusion of economic culture among high school students. In fact, senior students looking ahead to a university degree can now get first-hand experience of Bocconi's teaching style and study requirements, and receive a certificate that earns them educational credits toward their Italian high school diploma.

Bocconi Virtual College is a multimedia app comprising nine introductory classes on important subjects in economics, management and law, which have been expressly designed to help high school students make a informed choice regarding Bocconi, and the subjects taught and the methods being used there.

The lectures (videos accompanied by course slides) range from macroeconomics to financial markets, business administration, mathematics, international management, public and private law, marketing, microeconomics and economic history.

"With this initiative", Guido Tabellini, Rector, explains, "Bocconi fulfills one of its most important missions, namely the societal dissemination of the culture of business and economics. Also, experience has made us fully aware of the fact that experience is the most effective form of orientation, and the Virtual College reproduces on the Web initiatives like Bocconi Talent Scout and Discover Your Talent, which every year attract hundreds of high school students to Milan seeking to make a first-hand acquaintance with our University."

The nine lectures are complemented by interactive tests that enable students to assess the level of knowledge they have acquired. If these questions are answered correctly, a Bocconi Virtual College Certificate, which earns you credits toward the Italian high school diploma, is issued to the student. Students also enjoy the opportunity to virtually attend three lectures in English, part of the series devoted to global markets.

You can access Virtual College in two ways: the standard individual mode, where the student has complete autonomy, and the tutoring mode, supervised by high school teachers who intend to offer their students an introduction to the most current issues in economics, management, and law. In the latter case, the application enables the instructor to manage the whole process, from class attendance to the monitoring of the students' tests.