Drop-out, performance and tutoring: an investigation at the University of Padua
Abstract
The University of Padua has recently integrated usual tutoring actions with a new experimental
formative tutoring program. It aims to improve students’ academic success and to
reduce university drop-out, by means of reinforcing soft skills, which are particularly useful
for the career of a student. A computer-assisted web interviewing survey was designed
in order to define the profile of potential users of the program, to observe—in various
academic contexts—the characteristics of the drop-out phenomenon and of student performance,
and finally, to assess knowledge and use levels of tutoring services. The survey
involved 754 students, enrolled during 2012-13 academic year in three first-level degree
courses, which were selected as case studies for the experiment. In this study we present
the survey questionnaire, the indicators used for data collection, and some results that
we consider of particular interest for the implementation of the program.
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