ESCP Business School launches its first Phygital Factory

Located on ESCP’s (@ESCP_bs) historic Paris campus, the business school has launched its first Phygital Factory in order to create a creative space accessible to all students, teachers and staff wishing to learn about or explore the potential of digital technology applied to higher education.

Phygital is the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user, and the launch of this factory marks a major step in the deployment of ESCP’s phygital transformation plan.

Led by Anthony Hié, Director of Digital Transformation, and José Ramon Cobo, Associate Dean in charge of Educational Innovation, this ambitious programme aims to offer all members of the ESCP community a unique end-to-end phygital experience on all six of the school’s campuses by 2022.

The Phygital Factory consists of three adjacent spaces, each with specific facilities, including a ‘design’ space, a ‘share’ space, and a ‘make’ space, which is available to those who wish to create original digital educational content in microlearning or augmented reality mode.

“Contrary to the classic ‘Digital Factory’ where everything is dematerialised, the Phygital Factory designed by ESCP allows people to see and, above all, to touch innovation by materialising it through concrete virtual and physical tools” says Anthony Hié.

In the long term, ESCP’s target approach for the development of the digital environment on its campuses is 20/40: a minimum of 20% digital in each course, a minimum of 40% physical, with the balance leaving room for lecturers to produce more digital content if they wish.

José Ramon Cobo, Associate Dean for Innovation, adds:

“Our 2018-2022 strategic plan places great emphasis on digital and the deployment of hybrid classrooms. Our ambition is to shake up the codes of higher education by taking advantage of digital technologies. To do this, we are big believers in phygital, which takes the best of both the physical and digital worlds to create seamless experiences”

Demonstrating the school’s commitment to digital technology, ESCP ranked 8th in Europe and 1st in France, Germany and Italy for digital leadership, according to a global survey by the Times Higher Education of 3,400 corporate, start-up and young digital professionals.

“Our primary objective is to improve the student experience from start to finish, from enrollment to graduation, by providing interactive educational tools and instilling a true digital culture,” explains Anthony Hié.