A MOBILE APP TO SUPPORT STUDENTS IN THE “TRANSITION-IN” PHASE

Inadequate student experience, inefficient learning strategies or a lack of self-organization often lead to students’ premature dropout from higher education. With the increase in student numbers, student success is becoming a serious social issue. Most early terminations happen in the so-called “transition-in” phase of the student lifecycle, when students fail at developing a “student identity”. To sustain student success, universities need to develop instruments with a focus on freshmen, reinforcing learning and fostering retention. We present a digital solution with the potential to enhance student experience, improve learning strategies and help with self-organization. Universities can thus better contribute to the goal of a successful academic education by using technology to help students adjust to a more diverse student body. This paper describes our research on the development of a mobile application, adapted to the particular needs of business and economics students in the “transition-in” phase at a German university