The decision to hold offline lectures was based on the intention to make the students experience a more real academic atmosphere. It can be seen from so many activities that sprung up across the campus, from lectures in classes to students that gather in many student organizations.

ITB ensures that the students can bring the campus atmosphere back to life with a condition that they comply with the health protocols. One of the protocols is by scanning the Peduli Lindungi app every time they enter the campus and by always wearing a mask during lectures.

"We ensure that even if it is an offline lecture, wearing a mask inside the class is still mandatory. And for the students who are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, they will be provided hybrid lectures via Zoom so that they would not get left behind even if they cannot attend the class on-site," said Dr. Techn. Ir. Arief Hariyanto, as ITB Director of Education when conveying the reasons why ITB will be holding offline lectures.

He also mentioned another important point why ITB decided to hold offline lectures, which is to improve the students' soft skills. The soft skills in question are interpersonal skills and interaction skills, which both are hard to attain through online lectures. Making the students' soft skills on par with their hard skills has become one of ITB's main objectives.

Some obstacles were found during the first college day as everyone need to re-adapt. Some students can be seen roaming here and there looking for the locations of their classes. In the other corner, some students can be seen interacting warmly with each other marking the start of the first college day.

"Offline lectures are exciting because we can meet many of our friends and can have higher focus during lectures. But the consequence is we become more tired because we need to walk to different classes for different lectures," said Galuh Dipa Bharata, a student from the Undergraduate in Information System and Technology class of 2019.

The offline lectures bring many benefits for both the students and academic personnel. Students can experience the real lecture atmosphere. On the other hand, lecturers can deliver lectures with a more efficient method through face-to-face interaction.

Reporter: Lukman Ali (Mechanical Engineering, 2020)
Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)