Smart alternation schemes and design practices during pandemics

The pandemic outbreak has almost cancelled for a long period the pos- sibility to use laboratories to carry on didactic activities, included those foreseen for the alternation schemes. In this paper we report on an experience carried on in a vocational school of informatics. The alternation scheme conducted in "smart working" has been based on a design process (simulation of an innovation pro- cess) and has relied as much as possible on cloud applications to develop all phases of the collaborative process. Despite the lack of physical contacts the experience has been largely appreciated by the students that had the opportunity to the test the "smart working" modality. This case study and, overall, the outcomes of the survey demonstrate that the smart working is a viable opportunity for alternation scheme, that a design pro- cess can be conducted fully on-line with similar and even better results with re- spect to the face-to-face counterpart and, finally, that an on-line process offers the opportunity to better integrate the alternation scheme with the timing and or- ganization of the high school curricula.