Abstract:

Nowadays all museums and cultural sites are offer digital opportunities augmenting the cultural experience of visitors. Developing digital strategies has become key factor and is influencing the whole ecosystem around the museum. During the CoVid pandemics it was clearly highlighted that dedicated professionals and learning path about Digital Curator are missed, especially at the Higher Educational level. With this perspective, 7 partners (4 Universities, 1 research centre, 1 academic network, and 1 IT private enterprise) from 5 different EU Mediterranean countries joined their forces and launched the project E+ “DC Box –Digital Curator Training & Tool Box”. It aims to create a new generation of European professionals working in the cultural heritage sector, equipped with a recognized, cross-cutting and high-level digital skillset.

The main challenges addressed by the project are: methodological (the need to integrate “learning by doing models” in virtual learning experiences strongly emerged during the pandemic) and related to the needs for updated curricula in Cultural Heritage (the need to favor the emergence of new professional profiles as a result of digital transformation, like the Digital Curator).

The result of the project is the DCBOX toolbox, consisting in: Learning Modules (MOOC for Digital Curator professionals) ; Virtual Education and Co-Creation Toolbox (A virtual space for education, designing, prototyping); Virtual Experiences Prototypes (co-designed and tested by students through creative living labs focused on: Digital Library, Gaming, Immersive experience, Mobile geolocated app and Digital Storytelling); Hands-On and Evaluation Tool (a tool-box in which learning outcomes will be tracked and evaluated, also reporting the hands-on experiences carried out during traineeships co-tutored by universities and museums).

A major achievement of the DcBox project should be seen in the Learning Management system (LMS) hosting the course, based on Moodle and organized in 4 areas split in 8 modules. The course is accessible at: https://moodle.dcbox.eu.

The implementation of the toolbox has posed some challenges that we would like to present and discuss during the conference:
1) unstructured vs linear access: although the virtual course is open, the consortium decided for the modules a given order.
2) Closed vs open access: 2 parallel groups: one for HEIs “official and qualified” students (who will be involved also in the Virtual Living Labs on prototypes and the piloting activities) and another one anyone interested. Only the “qualified” HEI students are tutored. This turned out to be a good decision as 25 participants other than piloting students have joined the course so far.
3) Certification: firstly a certificate of accomplishment was released, then as improvement the DcBox consortium decided to provide an open badge, exploiting the Moodle functionalities and becoming issuer.

The use of the Toolbox in partner Higher Education institutions could be assessed proving to positively affect not only Universities’ students and staff (teachers, researchers, technicians) who have strongly improved their skills and knowledge on digital curation and digital tools for cultural heritage, but also museums and cultural institutions, ICT enterprises, public administrations and other organizations working in the field of culture promotion. Some interviews and testimonials will be included in the presentation.

Keywords:

Heritage dissemination, design-oriented course, digital transformation, museum exhibitions, updated skills.