Abstract:

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in Europe and the sudden health emergency have forced governments to use strict limitations on social occasions, intervening primarily in the context of school and university education. Suddenly and in no time it had to adapt to new forms of distance learning through a technological and pedagogical change never experienced before. In a very short time, the IT platforms currently available on the market, not always dedicated to teaching, have been verified and have been adapted for this specific use.

In a university education such as design, based on design laboratories, teamwork and learning by doing, with the use of specialized equipment and laboratories and strong inter-personal interaction, this transition, from teaching in presence to the virtual classroom, has determined significant problems and challenges. Through the analysis of three cases of ongoing experimentation - one at the level of the degree course and two of post-graduate master degree courses - very different from each other in terms of the number of students and teaching objectives, the first considerations will be drawn on the basis of outcomes in terms of training and student satisfaction. We will also analyze the different commitment that the teachers have had to put in place, constantly reviewing the didactic programming and the methods, with the changing of a changing scenario and with uncertain times: constant and sensitive planning, able to continually evaluate also the psychological level of the students, who live an unprecedented and prolonged condition of isolation and social separation.

Keywords:

e-learning, virtual classroom, design discipline, undergraduate corse, post-graduate corse, experimentation.