The peer-tutoring activities during the Covid-19 pandemic: how technology, e-learning, and online activities promoted socialization and wellbeing in the academic context

The Covid-19 pandemic led to psychological, pedagogical, economic, and social consequences, increasing in everyone a sense of uncertainty, disorientation, and confusion. Indeed, during this period, there were various repercussions on everyone's daily life, which generated new worries, loneliness, and destabilization. Especially, university students pervasively suffered the effects of the emergency and lockdowns. Their motivation, time perspective, future planning, and confidence in the future were severely put to the test. As a consequence of isolation, for instance, the construction and implementation of personal and professional career goals were significantly affected. In response to these emerging needs, the Peer-Tutoring Service of the University of Milano-Bicocca, an innovative project born 6 years ago to increase wellbeing and reduce university dropouts, intervened by reshaping its activities. Actualizing e-learning and online activities, the 150 Tutors involved promoted students' socialization with the University, reducing the perception of isolation and distance and increasing first-year students' skills and autonomy. In order to support tutors in that activities, 20 hours of mandatory online training were implemented. Under the supervision of a group of Career Counselling psychologists and a pedagogist (coordination group), the tutors reflected on their role in improving new skills during their formative online training. The outcome was the peer tutors’ online interventions to accompany first-year students through the reshaped university reality at the mercy of Covid-19. In particular, they activated telematic consultancy, e-learning contacts, individual online interviews, and online group meetings involving more than 3,000 first-year students. The contribution will illustrate the innovative online training for tutors and, consequently, the online consultancy that tutors implemented during the academic years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. In addition, the impact of these activities will be presented. The quantitative (questionnaires to first-year students) and qualitative data that emerged during the training and supervision of the Tutors will show how the Service has had a positive effect, decreasing the anxiety from Covid-19 in first-year students and improving their resources for a present and future career.