Italian Culture on the Net

This is an Italian consortium, it was created in 1999, 23 universities were in that consortium at the beginning, nowadays there are 21, the main goal of this initiative is promoting through electronic communication the Italian language and culture over the world.

They offer degrees and postgraduates studies related to Italian language, history, philosophy, literature, arts etc.. The courses are divided into 6 semesters; each semester has 30 credits, and 25 hours per credit.

The methods of teaching are face to face and distance learning. Students who opt for distance learning carry out their studies entirely on their own, studying the modules - grouped together by subject, - that are specified as constituting the study program for the given semester. Students then take the self-assessment tests at the end of each teaching unit and at the end of each module, to do the last exam of the semester, the students have to go to the closest center to do it, there are several centers for each country.

The resources that they offer are:

• Digital library: Registered users can access 318 works by 104 among the most important authors of Italian literature, made available in partnership with the Italian Telematic Interuniversity Library Centre. The student can read the texts on line or download them in whatever format they prefer.
• Virtual museum: The Virtual Museum reproduces Italian artworks from antiquity to the XXth century. Once you are in the Museum, you can carry out search routines on all the images to which reference is made in the History of Art modules.
• Encyclopaedia: Through a special agreement with the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana [Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia], the ICoN website offers a wide array of entries taken from the Piccola Enciclopedia Treccani.
• Audio gallery: They offer some but this section of the site is currently being extended.
• Video gallery: They offer some but this section of the site is currently being extended.

This consortium is also sponsored by several departments of the government and national banks.

The following university institutions collectively make up ICoN are:

1. University of Bari
2. University of Cassino
3. University of Catania
4. University of Genoa
5. Milan State University
6. University of Padua
7. University of Parma
8. University of Pavia
9. University for Foreigners Perugia
10. University of Pisa
11. University of Rome "La Sapienza"
12. University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
13. University of Roma Tre
14. University of Salerno
15. University of Siena for Foreigners
16. University of Turin
17. University of Trento
18. University of Venice
19. the Free University of Language and Communication IULM of Milano
20. the University of Naples "L'Orientale"
21. the Superior School for Academic Studies "S. Anna" of Pisa di Pisa.

The website is at http://www.italicon.it/index.asp?

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