Peer Mentoring and the First Year Experience

The transition from secondary level learning to independent study can be difficult to negotiate and many students also experience emotional pressures as they adjust to a busy social environment at college (McAleavy, Collins and Adamson 2004 ; O’Reilly 2008). Many third level institutions are exploring ways to improve the first year experience and one such approach that has gained increasing interest in recent years is the provision of peer mentoring. This paper outlines and evaluates a pilot peer mentoring programme that was conducted with first year business students (n = 112) from three separate courses at a third level institution in Dublin, Ireland. Three first year groups were chosen for participation in this study due to on-going low levels of engagement and high levels of attrition. A novel 360o approach was formulated, whereby students where provided support by mentors, lecturers and support staff. In order to measure the efficacy of the programme, feedback was elicited from participants and key academic variables (GPA and attrition rate) for participants and a matched sample that did not receive coaching were also compared. Results revealed that GPA increased significantly for one of the three student groups involved and that the attrition rate decreased significantly for one of the three groups

2017-18 Guide for Participants: Virginia Commonwealth University Peer Mentoring Program

The Peer Mentoring Program Guide for Participants provides information for both university faculty mentees and their faculty mentors to help establish and develop a productive mentoring relationship. This Guide is the handbook for the Virginia Commonwealth University Peer Mentoring Program, which seeks to support early career faculty members, enabling them to succeed and thrive in the academy as both scholars and educators. The VCU Peer Mentoring program is part of the VCU Office of Faculty Affairs

VCU Peer Mentoring Program: 2017-18 Guide for Participants

The Peer Mentoring Program Guide for Participants provides information for both university faculty mentees and their faculty mentors to help establish and develop a productive mentoring relationship. This Guide is the handbook for the Virginia Commonwealth University Peer Mentoring Program, which seeks to support early career faculty members, enabling them to succeed and thrive in the academy as both scholars and educators. The VCU Peer Mentoring program is part of the VCU Office of Faculty Affairs

Virtual mentor: An innovation in student support

Peer mentoring is well established means of support for first year students (Farrell et al. 2004, Green, 2007) which increases student retention and engagement at a relatively low cost (Boud et al, 2001; Hodges and White, 2001). Many of the existing peer mentoring models are based on face-to-face contact between more experienced students acting as mentors and first year students as the mentees. However, research conducted by Northumbria University indicated that although the principles of peer mentoring were welcomed by students they felt access to a mentee was only required sporadically. However, accessing the University's Virtual Learning Environment is a daily activity (Gannon-Leary and McDowell, 2003). Social Networking Sites such as Facebook are now a global phenomenon (Bausch and Han, 2006) and their role within the students'learning experiences is becoming of increasing interest (Licaardi et al., 2007). Therefore, this paper firstly explores the potential for virtual learning environments or social networking sites to complement or replace the existing face-to face models of peer mentoring and secondly, discusses the factors which may inhibit the introduction of virtual peer mentoring

VCU Peer Mentoring Program: 2017-18 End-of-Year Report

The 2017-18 End-of-Year Report provides background information on the VCU Peer Mentoring Program and end-of-year data based on evaluation, feedback and recommendations. This report also contains participant demographics, a complete cohort listing and a summary of the end-of-year feedback survey. The VCU Peer Mentoring program is part of the VCU Office of Faculty Affairs

Peer mentoring in assisting retention – is a virtual form of support a viable alternative?

Support systems are vital for university entrants and one established means of support is peer mentoring, which has the potential to improve student engagement and retention. Peer mentoring models are generally based on face-to-face contact. However, given the increasing number of higher education institutions using social media, might online models be beneficial in a peer mentoring context? This article describes a literature review and case study that considers the advantages and disadvantages of three potential virtual models to facilitate a peer mentoring scheme. The case study, undertaken at Northumbria University, UK, involved an investigation of mentoring needs and current usage of electronic media where special attention is afforded to a diverse student body. The three models discussed are virtual learning environments (VLE), social networking sites and virtual worlds. We find that the VLE is established within institutions but lacks excitement; social networking is popular particularly with younger students but there may be resentment if this appears to be appropriated by the institution; whilst virtual worlds are unfamiliar to many students and require advanced skills to use successfully. Based on these findings the social networking model is now being run as a pilot study by business programmes at Northumbria University

Peer Mentoring

Interaction between students of higher education, both planned and unplanned, can enrich learning results (Collier, 1983; Johnson & Johnson, 1990; Topping, 1996). Research produced on this subject shows that effective interaction develops skills on known contents, creates rules for judging the best and the worst interpretations and develops he metacognitive conscience. Besides the metacognitive aspects, this horizontal learning also produces motivational and social results, since it is appealing for the mentored students to learn from their colleagues and for the mentors to develop teaching skills, creating bonding and acquaintance among the students and developing possible friendships (Biggs, 1999). Peer mentoring can show different versions: peer groups, debate groups, problem solving groups, etc. For this short program aimed at the development of personal and academic skills, we chose the peer group and the debate group methodology and drew up this document to become the structural and organizational foundation for the projected sessions directed to the 1st year of the courses offered in the University. This document succinctly presents the theoretical framework supporting each session, its goals, activities, materials and the most relevant aspects to be explored. It is directed to the formation of the 3rd year volunteers from the several graduate courses, masters and post-graduate students enrolled in the GPSA (the mentors), and constitutes a guideline that they will use in the formation offered to newly arrived 1st year students. As a functional instrument it will only contain the information considered most relevant

Peer mentoring to secure student placements

Purpose This paper describes a case study where student peer mentors were employed to motivate and assist undergraduates to secure optional professional placement positions. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes the reasons for establishing the project and the recruitment of mentors. It outlines a survey of students who had not undertaken placements the previous year to try to identify the activities that would be most effective on the part of the mentors. It then describes the mentoring that was conducted. The mentors, together with the placement co-coordinator, devised support ranging from one to one mentoring, drop in ‘clinics’, online support through a social network and large group talks. It discusses the results of this work and evaluates the oral and written responses of both mentors and mentees. Findings Those mentees who took part in the mentoring were typically those who were already enthusiastic about placement opportunities. The majority of students did not take advantage of mentoring support either face to face or online. It was found that the mentoring scheme did not significantly affect the proportion of students seeking or securing placements. However, the mentors themselves gained tremendous benefits from the mentoring scheme in particular developing their communication skills and confidence. Research limitations A thorough survey of potential mentees was not carried out after the project to ascertain the reasons for their lack of engagement. Practical implications There are two separate implications of this project: 1) The mentoring scheme was valuable primarily for the mentors and not the mentees and 2) The level of support provided by the University is not the main factor in the low take up of optional placement opportunities. If such learning opportunities are felt to be sufficiently valuable for the student learning experience they need to be compulsory with appropriate support available – a mentoring scheme might then be of far more value to mentees. Originality/value There is very little published concerning the use of mentoring to facilitate work based learning. Furthermore most published work on mentoring is located in the ‘best practice’ school of pedagogical research where it is implicitly assumed that one must report on the success of an intervention. Frequently it is more valuable to examine more unexpected results of an intervention. This paper however shows much greater benefits achieved by the mentors than the mentees

Relationship Of Peer Mentoring To Academic Success And Social Engagement For First Year College Students

A correlational explanatory research design examined the relationship between peer mentoring, academic success and social engagement of first year college students participating in a peer mentoring program at a research one university in the southeastern United States. One hundred thirty-eight participants from the peer mentoring program responded to a Peer Mentoring, Academic Success and Social Engagement (PMASSE) questionnaire created and pilot tested by the researcher; the PMASSE had a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.95. Peer mentoring was the independent variable and academic success and social engagement were the dependent variables. Three primary theoretical frameworks were utilized: social constructivism, theory of student involvement, and the theory of social integration. Descriptive statistical analyses showed several patterns related to the quality of the peer mentoring experience, level of academic success, and social engagement as perceived by the first year students. Inferential statistical analyses—including Fisher’s exact test and one-way ANOVAs—yielded several statistically significant relationships between peer mentoring, academic success, social engagement, and demographic mediating variables