Innovative teaching projects - Humanities, social sciences and cultural heritage

Podcast series on lesser-known medieval archaeological sites in Veneto.

Episodes produced by students on the Bachelor's degree course in Medieval Archaeology in the academic year 2022-2023. 

Listen to the 27 podcast episodes on Mediaspace 

Project lead: Alejandra Arnau Chavarria 
Keywords: Veneto, archaeology, podcast, Middle Ages

The exhibition «Cambio de era. Córdoba y el Mediterráneo cristiano» («Change of Era. Cordova and the Christian Mediterranean») tells the story of the origin and development of early Christianity, highlighting its impact on Mediterranean history and culture, with particular attention to the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the city of Cordova.

The exhibition is accompanied by a prestigious catalogue edited by Professor Alexandra Chavarría Arnau and an English-language MOOC “Change of Era: The Origins of Christian Culture through the Lens of Archaeology” hosted on FutureLearn, in which the professor introduces and contextualises the themes and objects presented in the exhibition. The MOOC is funded by Unipd under the Call for Projects for the Improvement of Teaching. 
Read the article in Archeo and discover the MOOC on FutureLearn 

Project lead: Alexandra Arnau Chavarria 
Keywords: cordova, Christianity, Middle Ages, archaeology, mooc

To view the project please refer to the Department of Geosciences page

https://www.unipd.it/progetti-t4l-scienze

To view the innovative teaching projects of the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), please refer to the page

https://www.fisppa.unipd.it/didattica/innovazione-didattica

The “PerCorsi” project, developed between 2023 and 2024, responded to the needs of students by enriching the degree courses of the degree programmes with numerous laboratories and workshops for in-depth thematic study, assessment and the refinement of skills connected both to individual disciplines and to transferable competences.  Topics addressed included publishing, digital humanities, popular reading, iconology, computational applications of language, and more. In the various laboratories, students, supported by lecturers and expert tutors, were able to put into practice not only their knowledge, but also their interpersonal, argumentative, public engagement and communication skills, which are fundamental to their cultural profile and can also be applied in the workplace. Finally, 45 videos were produced to support the various degree programmes. These multimedia tools helped to strengthen the linguistic, literary and cultural preparation of current and future students overall.

The Nova Didaxis@UniPd project, carried out between 2023 and 2024, developed an innovative teaching model through laboratories and workshops on topics related to social theatre, public speaking and mobile videomaking, which fostered active participation and the learning of expressive, audiovisual and intercultural communication techniques. Particularly noteworthy was the residential programme Trekking partecipativo e analisi del paesaggio, which involved students in cartographic surveying activities and the production of narrative-photographic material, creating an inclusive learning community and promoting field research methodologies. The sharing of good practices among the student body, teaching staff and local associations (Italia Nostra, Ecomuseo della Judicaria) led to the creation of a volume, "Forum del Paesaggio 2024. Progetti in Movimento", of which 600 copies were produced. Finally, the project saw the establishment of a Task Force Didattica aimed at monitoring and improving organisational processes by listening to all parts of the DiSSGEA Community (teaching staff, students, PTA).