The main objective of our project was 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. We aimed 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 were: -development of experience-based digital pedagogy (bottom-up approach, peer learning); - promoting 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, starting from creating DISTINCT Community of Practice.
We addressed the needs of academic chemical community concerning digital transformation, 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:, such as: 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 and “technophobes”)? 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? And how to do all this in a simple, transparent and user-friendly way? In short: how to build digital culture in the academic environment in the special case of chemistry studies.