Virtues and shortcomings of guidance and tutoring in higher education: a longitudinal study of the TIMONEL Project

Abstract

This research is established within the framework of Project TIMONEL, developing in three phases under a concurrent mixed research model. The ultimate goal was to create a Web Recommendation System (RS) to complete the tutorial and guidance work of university professors. Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected from a large sample of students and professors from different European universities on the needs and situation of guidance practice (phase 1). In addition, certain cases are investigated and the reasons, knowledge, feelings and good practices in guidance and tutoring are explored, in order to identify opportunities for improvement and elements that enable the design of the RS (phase 2). The data collected in the first and second phases of project development were used to finally build a SR capable of receiving feedback from user contributions (phase 3). Finally, the SR was evaluated, proving to be a tool of great use for university students and faculty.