Abstract:

We could affirme that the European Union has been strengthened since 1987 thanks to the exchanges of university students who have attended foreign universities with the Erasmus programme, studying, living and sharing the culture of other Europeans, speaking another language during some intense months of their life.

Cultural diversity is no less important heritage than biological diversity, to which we currently give so much value, by protecting endangered animal and plant species. Equally, cultural diversity must be valued: in our age of globalization of products and goods, the cultural characteristics of each European community are an expression of differences that enrich Europe’s intangible and material heritage.

In particular, the variegated world of construction is the most evident manifestation of the numerous solutions of human adaptation to the environment: different climatic and geological conditions, different resources, different materials available have created architectures strongly related to the sites. Traditional materials and construction techniques have not only produced buildings but have also modified natural landscapes transforming them into places where people can live.

These were the premises of a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) course within the Erasmus+ Programme launched by the Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering Department of Naples University. The BIP intitled "Constructions and rural landscapes" proposed and coordinated by Marina Fumo, with the support of tutors Gigliola D'Angelo and Veronica Vitiello of the University of Naples Federico II, welcomed three groups of students and professors from the Universidad Politècnica de Madrid, the Politehnica din Timisoara and University of Thessaly in Volos.

The innovative pedagogical approach of the "challenge-based" BIP provides short periods of activity in presence -maximum 5 days- combined with online learning and cooperation activities, in which joint groups of students and teaching staff from different countries can collaborate on specific tasks collectively and simultaneously. In this intensive course the selected case study was the Costa d’Amalfi, UNESCO Cultural Landscape. A first phase was carried out online a few days before the meeting in Ravello to introduce the theme and to give basic minimum knowledge, fundamental to understand the method and the objectives of the BIP.

During the on-site course, all together participated in getting to know and understand the places through walks, seminars with experts and interviews with the local population. The teachers did not participate in the final works; 3 teams of 6 students were formed – each group consisting of 2 students from Spain, 2 from Romania and 2 from Greece - who produced and, finally, presented their videos to the teachers. In fact, the virtual component in BIP is mandatory because the use of digital technologies improves both teaching and learning methods and the communication of the outputs too.

Considering the very short time of cooperation, the results were surprising not only for the interesting videos produced by the students, who worked with peers of universities from other European countries, but for the atmosphere of familiarity and cultural sharing that has been created by spending together the free time of the evening, with social dinners, songs, dances, and laughter.

Keywords:

International Cooperation, Erasmus BIP Exchange Programme, University Network.