Digital excavation and the new skills for archaeologists in Delta Project

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education provision at an unprecedented scale. The impact of limited use of digital educational tools & skills became more apparent during the pandemic, which created serious problems in conducting face-to-face excavation training in both classroom and excavation site. Within this context, the integration of these two physical spaces through the digital "space" of online training is the main objective of project DELTA (Digital Excavation through Learning and Training in Archaeology), a transnational project funded in the context of Erasmus+/KA2 EU programme (2019-2022) with the coordination of the Hellenic Open University (DAISSy research group) and participants the relevant departments of archaeology of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), University of Basilicata (Matera, Italy), and Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic). The results of the first phase of the project included desk research aiming at recording the existing situation in the 3 countries concerning: the use of digital applications in archaeological excavations, the courses on excavation practices, methods/techniques, and the use of digital educational tools. The survey recorded the most recent trends in the university curricula, existing digital skills and level of expertise of students - professionals, their needs & desires concerning Page 1 of 2 the use of digital applications in excavation and archaeological education. The results proved to be particularly revealing, especially when comparing the situation between the three countries. DELTA project aimed to design & develop a course through which, students of Archaeology were able to improve their knowledge and develop digital and 21st century skills. The online piloting allowed participating Universities to discuss the level of integration of digital applications, tools and methods in teaching and learning in Archaeology online, necessary digital skills & make suggestions for the future. Particularly within the context of the recent pandemic and the problems it created in students' excavation training.