Digital support for university guidance and improvement of study results

This paper will analyze Orient@mente, a project developed by the University of Turin since the 2014/2015 academic year. The project’s main purpose is to support students in their choice of the most appropriate university study course. An educational model for university guidance has been developed and applied in the creation of a self-paced MOOC. It is provided through a learning management system integrated with an advanced computing environment, an automated assessment system and a web conference system. In the platform students can find accessible activities such as interactive resources, information, orienting material about 15 scientific courses, automatically graded tests, review courses. As a result, the University of Turin has recorded enrollment growth in scientific courses. Students' feedback has shown high appreciation of these innovative teaching methods and digital devices for learning Mathematics and other scientific subjects. In the next future, the University of Turin is interested in extending a similar service oriented towards other courses, especially courses which provide a highly selective admission test and requires a specific background of knowledge.