Three Essential Online Mentoring Tips

Covid-19 and the resulting social distancing measures have pushed us all to find new and innovative ways of engaging in mentoring relationships. Here are three tips that might help ensure that your online mentoring (or e-mentoring) is a positive experience for both mentors and mentees:

1. Take time to learn and master the technology. Regardless of the specific platform used, difficulties with using and understanding technology are one of the main reasons e-mentoring relationships fail (Shrestra et al., 2009). Making sure that you are proficient with the tools that you need to use, and are able to mentor your mentee in using these tools, is crucial to the success of your e-mentoring.
2. Schedule frequent and regular contact (including video-calls and email check-ins) and make sure you stick to the schedule. Research has shown that not responding to emails or other messages within a reasonable timeframe has a similar effect to missing a face-to-face meeting (see Rhodes et al., 2006). Make sure to prioritise regular and timely engagement.
   
3. Embrace the opportunities. E-mentoring has numerous benefits, including flexibility of scheduling, and providing accessibility for mentees and mentors who would otherwise have been unable to engage in mentoring relationships (see Shrestha et al., 2009; Wallis et al., 2015). Try to view this not as a “second best” option, but as a way of working that offers its own array of new opportunities.

References

Rhodes, J. E., Spencer, R., Saito, R. N., & Sipe, C. (2006). Online mentoring: The promise and challenges of an emerging approach to youth development. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 27, 497-513. doi: 10.1007/s10935-006-0051-y

Shrestha, C. H., May, S., Edirisingha, P., Burke, L., Linsey, T. (2009). From face-to-face to e-mentoring: Does the “e” add any value for mentors? International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(2), 116-124.

Wallis, J. A. M., Riddell, J. K., Smith, C., Silvertown, J., & Pepler, D. J. (2015). Investigating patterns of participation and conversation content in an online mentoring program for Northern Canadian Youth. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 23 (3), 228-247. doi: 10.1080/13611267.2015.1072395

By Carol du Plessi, University of Southern Queensland