Mentoring

What is it?

Online mentoring is where professionals, experts or more experienced students act as guides for learners; staying in touch using social software tools. As with face-to-face mentoring, it can be useful in any number of diverse fields but is most commonly used to assist learners to achieve their individual career aspirations or to support learners while they become familiar with new environments or processes. Online mentoring can be done as a group but it is more common for mentors to act in a one-on-one capacity. The mentoring relationship is voluntary and is ideally designed to benefit not only the learner but also the mentor and their associated communities which, in an online environment, can have far reaching effects.

As blogs make ideal student learning journals they can also be accessed by a mentor who can comment on the reflections and progress of the student. Virtual conferencing allows the facilitator to work with groups or individuals, for example to demonstrate computer software from their computer or ‘take over’ a student’s computer in order to model a procedure directly on the screen.

Pros and cons

Online mentoring allows students and mentors to overcome physical barriers to regular communication. Face-to-face mentoring is often impeded by time constraints and geographical distance as well as social and work commitments. Online mentoring allows the student and mentor to communicate by a variety of methods at any time of day and from any number of different locations.
Despite the increasing accessibility of tools such as webcams, audio headsets and other devices designed to facilitate the feeling of a face-to-face environment, these place an increasing strain on bandwidths and computer processing capacity.
With online mentoring a great deal of face-to-face communication is non-verbal and much of this crucial communication is lost in the online environment. However, mentors often report substantial improvements in the written communication skills of their students.
Online mentors often report learning a lot of technical information from their students which helps them to keep pace with the rapid rate of technological change.
The internet allows mentors to access useful resources easily and to direct students to them. By archiving online communication, students are able to refer to the advice and resources when they need them most.

Fit for purpose?

Online mentoring can act as an excellent additional support to those students who are socially or geographically isolated.

It offers a less formal support structure for students and in the facilitation of a constructivist learning style. Virtual ‘lounges’ and other discussion forums can act as back-up support to students and for occasional queries as well as allowing students to connect with other learners. In some instances, relationships forged through mentoring programs may remain in place beyond the formal scope of the program and provide mutual support networks that continue into the learner’s later work and personal life.

Find out more

For more ideas of how this strategy can work in practice, go to the following case studies:

Blogs – Connecting with blogs, Rosa Ochoa
Virtual conferencing – Personal learning with virtual conferencing,, Gregor MacKenzie
Virtual conferencing – Application sharing with virtual conferencing,, Philip Nichols.