The Higher Ed Ally

What is a Mentor?

What is mentoring and mentorship? According to Merriam-Webster a mentor is a trusted guide, counselor, tutor, or coach.(1). None of these uses the word teacher or educator, but I think all of us who work in education would argue that part of our jobs is to mentor our students.

Mentoring students in person has it challenges, no doubt, but there are different challenges when attempting to do so across hundreds or thousands of miles via the internet. As an online instructor for almost two decades, I’ve rarely met my students in person. Nonetheless, I take my role as their mentor seriously. So, how do I make sure that I’m doing it well?

Since ancient times, universities and their instructors have served as mentors to students. Beginning with Plato’s Academy until the present day, leaders at universities, colleges, and K-12 schools have understood that part of their role was to guide and tutor their students to help them succeed at their educational goals. Despite the fact that a large amount of post-secondary education now takes places in the virtual realm of online classes and institutions of higher education, mentorship remains a pivotal part of the student-professor relationship.

Mentorship Outside of Education

In many sectors of life, junior members look to more experienced colleagues, friends, or leaders to provide guidance as they improve in their field. One of my favorite of these famous mentorships is that of Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams (shown above). I’m an 80s kid and loved Spielberg movies growing up. My own kids are fans of several of Abrams’ projects, particularly the newer installments of The story tells us that when Abrams was just a teen, Spielberg hired him to clean up some old home movies in his basement. The two have continued a long friendship and mentorship to this day.

Mentoring Online Students

So, how do I mentor my online students? My first strategy is to do my best to be completely authentic. My students often have doubts about their academic abilities. They confess to having “imposter syndrome” often. I let them know that I not only know how they feel, but that I still have it myself on occasion. Despite more than 20 years in my field, I still question my abilities and how others in my field judge me. I also share my personality beyond the classroom and let my students know about my personal hobbies and interests, my favorite music and food, and little things about my family. I let them know that I am a real person behind the computer screen.

Another way that I mentor my students is by providing quality feedback to their work. For my graduate students, in particular, my institution’s format requires that they participate in weekly discussion forums. Although I respond in the forums, I provide deeper, more detailed feedback in grading feedback. It is rare that a student earns less than 100%. The goal of these forums is more of a check-in, so when I provide grading feedback, I offer advice, suggestions for sourcing, writing corrections, and reassurance. My students respond well to this and often reply to the feedback positively.

Yet another way that I mentor students is by creating community within my discussion forums. Since these also serve as check-ins, other students have the opportunity to offer each other feedback, suggestions, and cheerleading. I foster this myself by always letting students know that the forums are a safe space to discuss their research and its challenges. In a decade of using his method, I’ve haven’t had this type of sharing turn negative.

Why Mentoring Matters

As online education becomes more and more prevalent, mentoring future leaders will be even more important than it is today. We know, based on recent research, that today’s students are much more connected to devices. They receive their news from social media sites, and they interact with their peers via SnapChat, TikiTok, etc. Human to human interaction continues to decline among younger generations of students. As educators, It will be up to us to foster better and more frequent person-to-person interaction and to teach students the art of collegiality. When I model the type of collegiality that I want students to learn, I let them know that they are getting it right. Our current students are our future colleagues, so it is in our best interest to help them grow as scholars and human beings.

I would love to hear more about how you mentor students in your online and traditional classes.