Distributed Home Labs at the Time of the Covid

The well-known difficulties with the recent pandemic have forced people to find new communication means, especially concerning educational methods. University courses have been dramatically changed in their structure, just in a few weeks. While traditional lectures have been more easily switched to “on-line” methods and tools, classes mainly based on experimental lab activities have suffered more from the new forced approaches: a new and stronger effort had to be produced to guarantee the proper knowledge transfer. Many ways have been tried to export experimental labs into students’ houses, preserving and stimulating their curiosity. However, there was a risk to foster a more passive role; students watching a movie or listening to a faraway teacher could not have direct interaction with the instrumentation locked in not accessible labs, nor had the important chance to develop “hands-on” sessions. This paper deals with the ideas and attempts to preserve the value of the experimental activities during the COVID period, in which experimentation has also meant experimenting a new way of teaching; early attempts will be described up to a final proposal, which has been successfully tested with students of both the bachelor and the master of science.