Many studies have shown that a proper onboarding procedure for freshmen at the university has many positive effects, especially the increase in retention rates. This research project pursues to what extent this process can be technically supported or improved. In the first step, user-centered and participative methods were used to identify the problems together with first-year students, and an onboarding concept was developed. In the second step, the concept was technically implemented and evaluated with quantitative and qualitative research methods. 102 freshmen participated in the following chatbot-based onboarding scavenger hunt, which had a strong focus on network building between the new students. The 12-day onboarding scavenger hunt was conducted at the beginning of the winter semester 2019 with computer science freshmen at the University of Vienna. The evaluation results revealed that the students felt more familiar with the faculty building and the university campus after the scavenger hunt, also met other students, made new friends, and, by participating, their sense of belonging to the student community became stronger.

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