The piloting course of DCDS project in Italy at Associazione Centro Studi Città di Foligno lasted two months and it has been a great experience for both students and trainers. When it started at the end of March 2019, CSF collected more than 40 registrations and we were happily forced to organized two groups so to welcome everyone on board. Among the 43 participants who attended the morning and afternoon classes, CSF trainers had the pleasure of working with seniors and adults with migrant background. The face-to-face lessons took place at DigiPass Foligno, the new open digital space at CSF.
The face-to-face meetings involved an average of more than 30 people every week who, after having completed the entry questionnaires and the self-assessment tool of the DCDS platform, were introduced to the topics of the learning path BASE. The learning activities in classroom proved to be extremely useful from the beginning, and participants were very interested. They were able to use the competences acquired during the course, such as sending email or find public services on the internet, in their daily life and this was the main motivation for them to attend the course. Moreover, they were provided with useful information about the aware and safe use of digital tools that gave them a completely new perspective on the online world. The use of the DCDS platform was introduced a bit later in the course in order to allow students to gain basic skills in the digital environment. The use of the platform was an added value for participants for two main reasons: first of all they were able to find useful material and test their competences and secondly the use of the platform was itself a good exercise as for all of the students was the first time in an e-learning environment.
The course ended on the 31st of May with the issuing of attendance certificate to more than 30 participants who attended more than 70% of the face-to-face classes. In Foligno participants were very happy with the results obtained, and they look forward to enrolling to future courses and possibly be involved in the alternative learning paths.