The world of online peer mentoring

Having taken some time to look at the topic of peer mentoring in general I went a step further at started to look at the role of an online peer mentor. I had a few questions that I started to ask myself, questions that stemmed from the research I have been doing over the past few days. 

1. What is an online peer mentor?
2. How is an online peer mentor different from an online supplemental instructor?
3. What training do online peer mentors have?
4. 
   

   How are online peer mentors chosen?
5. What qualities make for a good online peer mentor?

Yes, this might look like an exhaustive list of questions,  but they are  questions that I need to find answers to in my quest to understand the world of  online peer mentoring. Here is my view on the questions posed above:

What is an online peer mentor?  I found an interesting video that encapsulates what an online peer mentor is: 

Peer mentoring  

Clearly an online mentor, is in most cases a successful student that has been placed on a course that they have  already completed. Their role is to serve as a guide for others, which is eluded to in the YouTube video.  Some of their many skills as a peer mentor seem to be that of facilitating discussion and locating resources for others, although I am sure that this is not their soul responsibilities. Their essential function for me to act as a role model for other students.

I seem to have an aversion to the term supplemental instructor as I don't  see the role of  peer mentors  as being an  extension of the instructor, but they  have a distinctive role mentoring in several activities, again having the opportunity to share their experiences with other cohorts, fostering discussion and support students to become successful, which I refer to early in this post. 


At this stage of my research some very clear themes were starting to appear, which will support my proposal to introduce a buddy scheme on the MSc BOE (Blended and Online Education) course. As I develop Sales training many of these benefits I am eluding to here would certainly be on my list of USP's ( Unique Selling Points) to outline the value that such a  scheme would bring to course I am currently studying on.  

I need to understand the logistics of on boarding mentors as this is going to be a vital element of my proposal. So what kind of training would they need? I quite completely came to the conclusion that an online peer mentor will have an NLP master or professional coach qualification in the bag!  The concept of the mentoring taking place online asks the mentors to have some experience in online communication and they may need to have some experience in learning software, whether this be WebCT or Moodle or any other tool used out there. I am sure some kind of pedagogical training would also be valuable. Not every student is suited to this role and some kind of selection process needs to take place. Maybe establishments only look at successful students, which seems to be the common theme in the literature I have read to date. I would opt for an all-round student, who is sociable, tech-savvy  and has an clear interest in helping others.  Someone who does  not feel comfortable online would not be on my selection list of peer mentors.  This would be my wish list:

• A good communicator and good verbal skills 
• Social
• Feels comfortable taking on a leadership role

This post has dealt with the topic of what is a peer mentor. My upcoming webinar will also cover the topic of how education establishment benefit from running peer mentoring schemes.