Abstract:

Tutorial action is one of the areas in which Spanish universities have been making a great progress during the last years. Due to the general low level of maturity and knowledge among incoming students, it has been considered necessary to implement new systems that help facilitate their integration during their first year at college. Besides, universities increasingly offer a wide scope of programs, itineraries, as well as academic, cultural and sport activities that many students do not get to know.

The classic tutorial systems and orientation sessions are not very appealing for most incoming students, who are often reluctant to attend. In order to facilitate their orientation and integration, a design of an online game is proposed to enable them to know about all the possibilities offered by their institution. The objective of the game is to live an entire virtual year as a freshman. Many students who come to college not knowing what to expect could be more prepared and be less likely to drop out of school after their first semester by playing it.

The game will consist on a virtual map of the campus’s geography. The player will be able to customize a character that he or she will play with, and will be faced with the challenges a typical student might encounter. They will choose to go to class, borrow a book from the library, ask questions to a professor, and they will learn the consequences of their actions. For instance, they may get rewarded for their good grades and receive a virtual scholarship.

There will be little nodes of information and people walking around on campus that the students could interact with and gather more knowledge of the university, it's programs, activities, etc. Since the game will be played over the internet, prospective students from around the world could access it and also learn about the university.

This work presents the characteristics of this project of online game and its possibilities as a tool for facilitating the integration of incoming students at college.

Keywords:

Tutorial action, orientation, integration, incoming students