Case Story: eMentoring

Summary	an exploration of using online tools to facilitate mentoring
Group / workshop	Formative e-Assessment	Status	seed
Project details...

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

The context was mentoring. The idea of the project was to create a hub in which we drew in business mentors, representatives of small social enterprises and third party observers.

about ten mentors and twenty businesses scattered across the country.  The process lasted three months.

Interactions on line, on phone etc were tracked by mentors and mentees using moodle. Two set of notes  were created  a set of notes giving feedback to mentees and another set of notes which reflected on the process of mentoring. The latter was only shared with mentors.  In order to preserve confidential business information mentees did not share notes. The motivation of mentees was high because they wanted to pitch up successfully on Dragon's Den.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

The problem was to make it easier for the mentoring process to happen through the online tools. Two streams of training; the mentoring of the business people and the observers were training the mentors.

 

0?.href.value='EnterpriseProject.jpg'; return false;">

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

We provided the digital tools to make that happen. A heavily customised moodle was provided to catch any interactions. We used the assignment function as a way of  highlighting documents for mentees  to use. Interactions on line, on phone etc were tracked by mentors and mentees using Moodle. For the most part, this was a one-to-one process. Two set of notes were created. A set of notes giving feedback to mentees and another set of notes which reflected on the process of mentoring. The latter was only shared with mentors. Mentees did not share notes with each other because of the sensitive material being discussed.There was also a task list. Some of tasks were  reflective addressing process. The outcomes of these discussions suggested things like 'the communication isn't happening, you need to engage a lot more strongly with...' The feedback  suggested change in process which sometimes was difficult to do in practice.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

There is an interaction between mentors and mentees. We gave them a tool to facilitate interactions. We found some challenges

technological nature of tools

sensitive issues of business on line

Some successes

some people got over the ict barriers.

They used way of tracking really effectively

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

It can be difficult to change practice in the course of a fairly concise process.

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.