Abstract:

As Banning (1989), Dweyer (1989), and Tinto (1992) point, the students accessing to the university experience a high degree of failure due to unfamiliarity with their new academic stage. On the other hand, one of the premises of the European Higher Education Area is to promote the dissemination and interaction between professors and university students with the rest of the society. From these two facts, we have developed an Innovation Project at the Region of Murcia (Spain) funded by the Regional Government for 2013-14 academic year. This project is done in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Murcia. This project involved the use of new information technologies to facilitate information to high school students and its relationship with university professors and students. These objectives were developed employing different instruments: Creating forums and chats with various topics (academic issues, economic environment, students mobility), through which high school students got in touch with university students, as well as with high school teachers and university professors. We have also developed various competitions (stock investment, firm creation and financial analysis). We have spread news and students have had access to different tutorials. Finally, we have distributed a questionnaire to high school and university students, in order to determine possible differences in their entrepreneurial spirit, their desires and constraints to study abroad and their vision about gender diversity of the board of directors of firms following the Law 3/2007 about equality (Ley Orgánica 3/2007 de Igualdad). The aim of this manuscript is to show the activities developed on this project as well as the results.

References:
[1] Bannings, James (1989), Impact of college environments on freshman students, en M. Lee Upcraft, John N. Gardner et al., The freshman year experience, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
[2] Dwyer, John (1989), A historical look at the freshman year experience, en M. Lee Upcraft, John Gardner et al., The freshman year experience, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
[3] Ley Orgánica 3/2007 de 22 de marzo, para la igualdad efectiva de mujeres y hombres, BOE nº 71 de 23/3/2007.
[4] Tinto, Vincent (1992), El abandono de los estudios superiores: una nueva perspectiva sobre las causas del abandono y su tratamiento, México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior.

Keywords:

Higher education, high school students, interaccion, e-learning.