Background:

We plan to address the needs of academic chemical community concerning digital transformation. The DISTINCT consortium will try to provide contribution in the form of support/assistance when dealing with the basic questions related with the Digital Transformation and the emerging New Normal: * How to carry out the digital transformation of chemical studies in a balanced, systemic manner? * How to live and survive in the digital world (with digital natives, digital immigrants ant “technophobs”)? How to accept “new reality”, overcome IT-induced psychological barriers? * How to get used to risks and uncertainty brought by the pandemic after a long period of stability and predictability? How to deal with breaking out of the rhythm of everyday life? * How to build resilience against possible future crises applying digital solutions? Our application was prepared by practicioners - vice deans for studies, heads of student laboratories and experienced lecturers; therefore DISTINCT objectives and activities correspond directly to their needs.

Objectives:

The main objective of our project is to look for a well-balanced approach to the digital transformation of chemistry teaching, taking also into account both good practices from pre-COVID times and "reconnaissance in battle" experiences from the lockdown time. Our project is aiming at selecting the best practices (to avoid information overflow), implementing them and make them available to partners and to wider range of stakeholders. The concrete objectives are: - development of experience-based digital pedagogy (bottom-up approach, peer learning); - introducing accessible and assistive technologies to support remote, hybrid and blended teaching and learning provisions; - creation of the DISTINCT wiki-like platform; - contribution to the integration of educational and training provision in the chemistry sector at large.

Implementation:

There will be the following types of activities: 1. Activities directly related with the intellectual work on the Results: designing, testing, checking, implementing. 2. Disemination and promotion: publications, participation in conferences, multiplier events etc. 3. Multidimensional networking activities: interaction with other projects, activities involving chemistry sector at large, networking around Digital Transformation objectives. 4. Activities related with project management: day to day management, communication between partners, reporting, organization of TPMs etc. Project activities will be directly related with regular activities of project partners and associated partners and the results will be directly applicable in partner institutions and in their national context, as well as at the European level (through ECTN and associated partners' activities and channels). Therefore the project will not be an "isolated entity" but it will be deeply rooted in the tissue of national and European chemical education sector. The results of our project will be integrated into the fabric of overall digitalization policies at the institutional national and international level.