THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA CAREER GUIDANCE PROJECT: BRIDGING SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY WITH THE E- LEARNING EXPERIENCE Sara Cenni, Valentina Elvira Comba, Vera Luppi, Francesca Quatrosi, Andrea Reggiani University of Bologna Bologna Italy sara.cenni@unibo.it, valentina.comba@unibo.it, vera.luppi@unibo.it, francesca.quatrosi@unibo.it, a.reggiani@unibo.it The University of Bologna has started the Career Guidance Project developing several initiatives: self evaluation questionnaires for Secondary Schools students, training courses for admission tests, and an e-learning platform with online modules in order to explain and show the cultural and professional environment of the University. It will be explained the genesis of the Project, the choice of the Learning Content Management System, the authoring tool advantages and the practical modules implementation. Special attention will be devoted to the analysis of the relationship with Professors and Authors during the modules preparation: the course deployment has been an opportunity not only to explain which are the basic aspects of e-learning effectiveness, but also to stress the importance of pedagogical aspects of a well structured course. The modules were offered to several Secondary Schools in a pilot edition in Spring 2007. Now there are ten modules available: Industrial Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Foreign Languages, Arts and Humanities, Psychology, Statistics, Law, Sciences. A new development of the Project will offer to the Erasmus students the possibility to use the e-learning modules to approach the University of Bologna and the preferred Faculty. Keywords University career guidance, e-learning, SCORM modules production 1. INTRODUCTION Italian Universities are devoting increasing efforts into in offering guidance and counselling services to Secondary Schools pupils (“orientamento in entrata”) and counselling to graduate students seeking their first jobs (“orientamento in uscita/job placement”). The University of Bologna was one of the first in Italy to establish a dedicated office which comes under Students Services. The Committee of Faculty Delegates, chaired by the Vice Rector for Students Affairs, drafts projects and deals with other institutions and agencies. In the years 2004-2006, the University of Bologna received ad hoc funding by the Ministry for Tertiary Education for such projects; one of the sub-projects was clearly indicated as “self-instruction/e- learning courses for Secondary Schools pupils with guidance purposes”. As soon the Bologna University established the E-Learning Centre [1], the Centre was appointed as co-ordinator of this sub-project called “Progetto Orientamento”. The paper highlights the main aspects of the project and its pilot test, as well as discussing advantages and tradeoffs within the University and outside it.