Mentoring college students via computer-supported tools in a public university in Mexico

Abstract

One of the most acute problems in the higher education in Mexico is the high rate of dropouts in college education. Particularly during the last decade we have witnessed troubling signs in the first stages of the career of our students, where the incentives for abandoning their studies seem to be appearing every day with a bigger intensity. To ease their adaptation in the demands that professional education asks of them several institutional programs have been in place, with varying degrees of success. However, we are convinced that in order for those programs to be successful they have to rely more in information technologies so that help can be available for the students in every possible way. Our main objective is to curb the increasing rates of students that dropout from their careers by providing a support network based on computer-supported tools.