The pilot project Made in Italy. Stories of Italian Design. Potentialities and limitations of distance learning through MOOCs

What strategies can be employed alongside the traditional teaching of design history to provide new learning opportunities for younger generations of students? In relation to this crucial question, the proposed contribution presents a critical reflection on the results obtained by the MOOC Made in Italy. Stories of Italian Design is a pilot project funded by the School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic, which was launched on the web in 2023. The project, which is in the vein of digital humanities (Burdick, Drucker, Lunenfeld, Presner, Schnapp, 2012), has three objectives: 1) to ensure that all students, and in particular, foreign students who may have difficulty understanding Italian culture, have free access to an online course on the introduction to the history of design in order to supplement and enrich their learning experience; 2) experiment with new methodologies for learning the history of Italian design using the potential made available by digital technologies (video-lessons, digital reconstructions, virtual visits, augmented reality, etc.); 3) promote direct knowledge of those archives, museums, and foundations in Milan that preserve, study and enhance the extraordinary heritage of Italian design (drawings and design documents, objects, prototypes and models). The MOOC takes the form of an online course and was created by the authors (Leyla Ciagà, Teresa Feraboli and James Postell) in collaboration with the METID-Methods and Innovative Technologies for Learning laboratory of the Politecnico di Milano (Susanna Sancassani, Managing Director). It is available online with free and open access on the POK – Polimi Open Knowledge platform of the Politecnico di Milano*).