Abstract:

In the last years, professors lecturing at the BA History of Art at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) have witnessed an increasing distress in students trying to adapt to the academic system. It proves difficult for many to get acquainted with the lecturing scheme, to develop autonomous learning capacities or to take the right decisions for the development of their curricular formation.  It seems that the gap in formation, autonomy and knowledge production between secondary education and university has certainly increased. This situation provokes anxiety and discouragement in some students, and harms the general level of motivation in some groups.

Since non-academic tutorials are not a common feature in Spanish universities and were therefore not part of our offer, a group of lecturers have developed a tutorial action plan (TAP, Plan de Acción Tutorial) to address this issues and accompany students through their academic journey. The plan has been awarded with a PIE (Educative Innovation Plan) by the EHU and is taking its first steps during the 2014-2015 school year.

The main objectives of the plan are to give guidance and orientation to students during their academic life. At this moment, the TAP has been constructed for and applied to the first two years of the BA, with the objective of growing together with these students until their graduation.

The first step of the TAP has consisted on improving the reception of possible future students and the welcoming of the first-year ones upon arrival, with specific small-group presentations and a guide focused on new students' needs. We have assigned each student to a specific tutor with whom they are supposed to meet at least twice a year to check their adaptation to the academic system. We have also worked upon specific information about mobility programs and internships for second year students, and we have collected this and more information in a degree guide.

Nevertheless, since we are aware of the necessity to contrast our perceptions on student's needs with their actual experience, we have included a group of four students (two per academic year) in the project working group. They will be leading meetings with their peers and elaborating a list of suggestions and proposals. At the same time, they will help review the already existing degree guide to include missing elements of interest.

We are carrying out the pilot experience, and already observing some interesting data. For example, even if they are better acquainted with technology in general, they show a lack of knowledge in terms of basic TIC tools such as Office or Adobe. It is difficult for them to discriminate information sources from the internet, and they are generally not used to using paper bibliography. Only with preliminary results we are already envisaging some complementary formation courses in the first year.

Our objective would be to present a more developed outcome in EDULEARN, since we will have finished our fist year by June and will be able to bring forward more interesting conclusions, which could serve as inspiring or guiding tools for other degrees facing similar circumstances.

Keywords:

Tutoring, mentoring, Art History, collaboration.