Are you considering broadening your field of expertise in key areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and cybersecurity in an effort to be more prepared for the current and future workplace?
The Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) offers both BSc and MSc degrees in areas such as Modern Computer Science, Digital Innovation, Applied AI, and Data Science that are designed to be dynamic and practical, constantly responding to advances in the field. And all OPIT courses are fully remote, attracting students from around the globe and providing asynchronous learning opportunities. This creates a flexibility that allows you to coordinate your studies around your other commitments, whether that be a challenging job or a busy family. So you can study when it’s convenient for you.
But what is it truly like to study online? Lucas Tecchio, head of Digital Content Creation at OPIT, recently took us on a deep dive into how OPIT’s courses are designed and delivered to help you understand what to expect from earning an OPIT degree.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Learning
Tecchio explained that OPIT’s courses combine synchronous and asynchronous content elements to create a dynamic learning environment that is both flexible and keeps students on track.
There are live sessions with professors, as well as content that is released in weekly modules to maintain the pace of the course. This is paired with videos, readings, practice tasks, and discussion forums that can be accessed at any time based on module release. Recordings of live sessions are also made available, so you don’t miss anything.
You can also choose to study at your own pace, through either the regular track – usually three years – or the fast track, in which you complete the course in two years. You receive the same quality education if you select the fast track, which is merely more intensive and requires additional time. But you get to select which track of study works best for you.
PERES Methodology
All OPIT course content is designed according to the PERES Methodology to optimize quality and engagement. Tecchio explained that the PERES Methodology means:
- Practicality – All theoretical concepts are reinforced with practical application
- Elegance – Learning material is well-presented for enhanced engagement and clarity
- Rigor – Content is academically rigorous
- Energy – Course content is delivered with an energy that keeps students engaged
- Simplicity – Materials are designed to make content accessible
Online Portal
All OPIT’s courses are delivered through its online portal called Canvas, where all course material can also be accessed.
According to Tecchio, when you log in, you can access all the individual courses that make up your program. You can also receive a general overview of your current stage in the program and what you need to do for all your courses, thanks to calendar and to-do list options.
When you select individual courses, you will see live weekly modules with links to the relevant content, including live sessions, videos, reading materials, and more.
Canvas is a self-contained and highly navigable portal that helps you stay organized and on track.
Competence-Based Learning and Progressive Assessment
Tecchio explained that OPIT’s courses are designed to teach both theory and competency, ensuring you can put what you have learned into practice. In the case of MSc courses, this culminates with the Capstone Project, which lets you apply everything you have learned to real business challenges.
In fact, every stage of the course follows the same philosophy – you will find yourself conducting practice tasks, performing live coding, and analyzing real study cases.
This philosophy carries through to assessment, which is progressive, rather than based on final exams and projects. This ensures that you are on track throughout the course, rather than left struggling at the end of the course.
For example, if you take the web development course, your main task will be to develop a website or app, and there are three stages to the project. By week four, you’ll be required to produce a prototype for your project. By week eight, you will produce a working version, and by the end of the course, you will have a fully tested and optimized version. These types of assessments can be done individually or as a group project, reflecting real workplace dynamics.
Professional Certifications
Many courses prepare you for professional certifications that are desired by many workplaces. Tecchio explained that while you still need to be tested and apply for the official certification, OPIT will fully prepare you to pass the testing without additional study.
You can receive professional certification in:
- Computer networks: CompTIA Network+
- Project management and quality assurance: Prince2Foundation, CAPM
- Cloud computing infrastructure: AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
- Network security and intrusion detection: CISSP
- AI-Driven forensic analytics in cybersecurity: GCFA
Student Support System
While studying online can sometimes feel like an isolated journey, Tecchio explained that OPIT does everything it can to build a dynamic community where you can receive significant student support to keep you connected and on track.
There are four main sources of student support.
The program coordinator helps with administrative issues. They handle onboarding, assist with the learning platform, organize additional events, and have virtual office hours that you can take advantage of whenever you need support.
Our team of 50+ academic and professional tutors not only delivers live lectures but is also an accessible source of knowledge and guidance. The faculty is a mix of experienced professors and active professionals who are leaders in their field and possess active real-world experience they can share with students. The faculty includes leaders like Zorina Alliata, Principal AI and Generative AI Strategist at Amazon, and Sylvester Kaczmarek, a former AI expert at NASA and WeSpace.
The Career Services team can assist with the transition from study to the workplace. The team delivers career coaching, organizes masterclasses with industry experts, and facilitates internship opportunities.
OPIT AI Copilot
This support team is now joined by OPIT AI Copilot, an AI agent that is specifically designed to be a personal learning companion. Unlike most generative AI agents, OPIT AI Copilot is trained on OPIT’s extensive range of learning materials, so it is highly fit for purpose. It also knows where students currently are in their course and can focus on the competencies that they are on track to master.
You can use OPIT AI Copilot to get immediate answers to questions based on OPIT’s course materials. It can also help students locate relevant resources, summarize the key takeaways from lectures to facilitate revision. Additionally, it can create practice tests based on the course materials, and prepare students for assessments through simulations.
OPIT Degrees
Online learning is often perceived as a lesser substitute for live learning experiences. But OPIT has superseded this by designing a dynamic online, asynchronous learning environment that promotes personalized education that works for individual students based on their lifestyle, time commitments, and learning style. It is not a substitute, but a new way of learning that represents the future of education.
Learn more about OPIT’s programs and courses and whether OPIT might be the right learning option for you.
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From the same author
Read the articleSource:
- Times of Malta, published on September 18th, 2025
4 min read
The gathering brought together academics and technology leaders from prominent European Institutions, such as Instituto de Empresa (IE University), OPIT itself and the Royal College of Arts, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the university experience.
The OPIT AI Copilot has been trained on the institute’s complete academic archive, a collection created over the past three years that includes 131 courses, more than 3,500 hours of recorded lectures, 7,500 study resources, 320 certified assessments, and thousands of exercises and original learning documents.
Unlike generic AI tools, the Copilot is deeply integrated with OPIT’s learning management system, allowing it to track each student’s progress and provide tailored support.
This integration means the assistant can reference relevant sources within the learning environment, adapt to the student’s stage of study, and ensure that unreleased course content remains inaccessible.
A mobile app is also scheduled for release this autumn, that will allow students to download exercise and access other tools.
During examinations, the Copilot automatically switches to what the institute calls an “anti-cheating mode”, restricting itself to general research support rather than providing direct answers.
For OPIT’s international community of 500 students from nearly 100 countries, many of whom balance studies with full-time work, the ability to access personalised assistance at any time of day is a key advantage.
“Eighty-five per cent of students are already using large language models in some way to study,” said OPIT founder and director Riccardo Ocleppo. “We wanted to go further by creating a solution tailored to our own community, reflecting the real experiences of remote learners and working professionals.”
Tool aims to cut correction time by 30%
The Copilot will also reduce administrative burdens for faculty. It can help grade assignments, generate new educational materials, and create rubrics that allow teachers to cut correction time by as much as 30 per cent.
According to OPIT, this will free up staff to dedicate more time to teaching and direct student engagement.
At the Milan event, Rector Francesco Profumo underlined the broader implications of AI in higher education. “We are in the midst of a deep transformation, where AI is no longer just a tool: it is an environment that radically changes how we learn, teach, and create,” he said.
“But it is not a shortcut. It is a cultural, ethical, and pedagogical challenge, and to meet it we must have the courage to rethink traditional models and build bridges between human and artificial intelligence.”
OPIT was joined on stage by representatives from other leading institutions, including Danielle Barrios O’Neill of the Royal College of Art, who spoke about the role of AI in art and creativity, and Francisco Machin of IE University, who discussed applications in business and management education.
OPIT student Asya Mantovani, also employed at a leading technology and consulting firm in Italy, gave a first-hand account of balancing professional life with online study.
The assistant has been in development for the past eight months, involving a team of OPIT professors, researchers, and engineers.
Ocleppo stressed that OPIT intends to make its AI innovations available beyond its own institution. “We want to put technology at the service of higher education,” he said.
“Our goal is to develop solutions not only for our own students, but also to share with global institutions eager to innovate the learning experience in a future that is approaching very quickly.”
Read the articleFrom personalization to productivity: AI at the heart of the educational experience.
Click this link to read and download the e-book.
At its core, teaching is a simple endeavour. The experienced and learned pass on their knowledge and wisdom to new generations. Nothing has changed in that regard. What has changed is how new technologies emerge to facilitate that passing on of knowledge. The printing press, computers, the internet – all have transformed how educators teach and how students learn.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next game-changer in the educational space.
Specifically, AI agents have emerged as tools that utilize all of AI’s core strengths, such as data gathering and analysis, pattern identification, and information condensing. Those strengths have been refined, first into simple chatbots capable of providing answers, and now into agents capable of adapting how they learn and adjusting to the environment in which they’re placed. This adaptability, in particular, makes AI agents vital in the educational realm.
The reasons why are simple. AI agents can collect, analyse, and condense massive amounts of educational material across multiple subject areas. More importantly, they can deliver that information to students while observing how the students engage with the material presented. Those observations open the door for tweaks. An AI agent learns alongside their student. Only, the agent’s learning focuses on how it can adapt its delivery to account for a student’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, and existing knowledge.
Think of an AI agent like having a tutor – one who eschews set lesson plans in favour of an adaptive approach designed and tweaked constantly for each specific student.
In this eBook, the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) will take you on a journey through the world of AI agents as they pertain to education. You will learn what these agents are, how they work, and what they’re capable of achieving in the educational sector. We also explore best practices and key approaches, focusing on how educators can use AI agents to the benefit of their students. Finally, we will discuss other AI tools that both complement and enhance an AI agent’s capabilities, ensuring you deliver the best possible educational experience to your students.
-
Go to all authors
Related posts
Source:
- Times of Malta, published on September 18th, 2025
4 min read
The gathering brought together academics and technology leaders from prominent European Institutions, such as Instituto de Empresa (IE University), OPIT itself and the Royal College of Arts, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the university experience.
The OPIT AI Copilot has been trained on the institute’s complete academic archive, a collection created over the past three years that includes 131 courses, more than 3,500 hours of recorded lectures, 7,500 study resources, 320 certified assessments, and thousands of exercises and original learning documents.
Unlike generic AI tools, the Copilot is deeply integrated with OPIT’s learning management system, allowing it to track each student’s progress and provide tailored support.
This integration means the assistant can reference relevant sources within the learning environment, adapt to the student’s stage of study, and ensure that unreleased course content remains inaccessible.
A mobile app is also scheduled for release this autumn, that will allow students to download exercise and access other tools.
During examinations, the Copilot automatically switches to what the institute calls an “anti-cheating mode”, restricting itself to general research support rather than providing direct answers.
For OPIT’s international community of 500 students from nearly 100 countries, many of whom balance studies with full-time work, the ability to access personalised assistance at any time of day is a key advantage.
“Eighty-five per cent of students are already using large language models in some way to study,” said OPIT founder and director Riccardo Ocleppo. “We wanted to go further by creating a solution tailored to our own community, reflecting the real experiences of remote learners and working professionals.”
Tool aims to cut correction time by 30%
The Copilot will also reduce administrative burdens for faculty. It can help grade assignments, generate new educational materials, and create rubrics that allow teachers to cut correction time by as much as 30 per cent.
According to OPIT, this will free up staff to dedicate more time to teaching and direct student engagement.
At the Milan event, Rector Francesco Profumo underlined the broader implications of AI in higher education. “We are in the midst of a deep transformation, where AI is no longer just a tool: it is an environment that radically changes how we learn, teach, and create,” he said.
“But it is not a shortcut. It is a cultural, ethical, and pedagogical challenge, and to meet it we must have the courage to rethink traditional models and build bridges between human and artificial intelligence.”
OPIT was joined on stage by representatives from other leading institutions, including Danielle Barrios O’Neill of the Royal College of Art, who spoke about the role of AI in art and creativity, and Francisco Machin of IE University, who discussed applications in business and management education.
OPIT student Asya Mantovani, also employed at a leading technology and consulting firm in Italy, gave a first-hand account of balancing professional life with online study.
The assistant has been in development for the past eight months, involving a team of OPIT professors, researchers, and engineers.
Ocleppo stressed that OPIT intends to make its AI innovations available beyond its own institution. “We want to put technology at the service of higher education,” he said.
“Our goal is to develop solutions not only for our own students, but also to share with global institutions eager to innovate the learning experience in a future that is approaching very quickly.”
From personalization to productivity: AI at the heart of the educational experience.
Click this link to read and download the e-book.
At its core, teaching is a simple endeavour. The experienced and learned pass on their knowledge and wisdom to new generations. Nothing has changed in that regard. What has changed is how new technologies emerge to facilitate that passing on of knowledge. The printing press, computers, the internet – all have transformed how educators teach and how students learn.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next game-changer in the educational space.
Specifically, AI agents have emerged as tools that utilize all of AI’s core strengths, such as data gathering and analysis, pattern identification, and information condensing. Those strengths have been refined, first into simple chatbots capable of providing answers, and now into agents capable of adapting how they learn and adjusting to the environment in which they’re placed. This adaptability, in particular, makes AI agents vital in the educational realm.
The reasons why are simple. AI agents can collect, analyse, and condense massive amounts of educational material across multiple subject areas. More importantly, they can deliver that information to students while observing how the students engage with the material presented. Those observations open the door for tweaks. An AI agent learns alongside their student. Only, the agent’s learning focuses on how it can adapt its delivery to account for a student’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, and existing knowledge.
Think of an AI agent like having a tutor – one who eschews set lesson plans in favour of an adaptive approach designed and tweaked constantly for each specific student.
In this eBook, the Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) will take you on a journey through the world of AI agents as they pertain to education. You will learn what these agents are, how they work, and what they’re capable of achieving in the educational sector. We also explore best practices and key approaches, focusing on how educators can use AI agents to the benefit of their students. Finally, we will discuss other AI tools that both complement and enhance an AI agent’s capabilities, ensuring you deliver the best possible educational experience to your students.
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