Several Innovative Education activities (D.I., Didattica Innovativa) have been activated in many courses of the Study Programme in Biomedical Engineering. The objective is to make the teaching more effective and thus to foster student engagement. Such activities are grouped into two different types named Action 1 and Action 2.

Action 1 activities are curricular, i.e. they appear in the Study Plan and contribute to earn ECTS credits. They require a final evaluation and may consist of:

• SOFT SKILL courses with a strong cross-sectional content (courses of social skills, communication skills, self-control and self-esteem training courses, course of team work, ethics, social etc.);
• innovative teaching and learning approaches: BLENDED-LEARNING (flexible teaching, a part carried out during class and another one online, to give immediate feedback to teachers and students); FLIPPED-CLASS (the teacher suggests a topic to the students, who study it at home, then the students discuss it in small groups, together with teacher or peers), in order to make the student more responsible, facilitate collaboration between peers and improve relationship with teachers;
• JOINT ACTIVITIES with companies, research institutions, enterprises;
• multimedia MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses, www.pok.polimi.it): the students watch and study the videos and then they put into practice what they learned during the class activities.

Action 2 activities are extra-curricular, i.e. they do not provide credits, but are in any case reported in the student career, since they appear in the “Diploma Supplement” (also known as “Transcript of Records”) issued together with the Degree. They aim at enhancing students interests and attitudes by a student competition, and may consist of:

• KICK-STARTED WORKSHOPs on “tools of trade” (courses to introduce the students to instrumentation, simulation and modelling, CAD software, etc.), but also business games, meetings among young students and entrepreneurs, course on intellectual property and patentability issues, etc., It’s an activity which provide specific skills to the students coming from any Study Programme;
• PROJECTs to train students to put skills into practice;
• CONTESTs between students and supported by companies.

As shown in the Study Programmes (both of Laurea and Laurea Magistrale), these activities are labelled as “d.i.” in the tables and with the number of credits dedicated to such activities.