Practical Experience of Blended Mentoring in Higher Education

Abstract

The need of a guided and supervised learning has become the cornerstone of the new model of higher education. One response to such need has been the introduction of mentoring programs to facilitate student learning and to provide guidance. In this way, the main aim of our study is to determine the extent to which the implementation of information technology (IT) into a traditional mentoring program, improves students’ global satisfaction, and therefore its effectiveness. A survey was conducted of program participants’ overall satisfaction with the mentoring and also with each of the activities carried out. We concluded that the inclusion of IT in a traditional (face-to-face) mentoring model increases overall student satisfaction with the program, and thus its effectiveness. The findings obtained can serve as a resource to clarify the importance of educational interventions in the field of student guidance, to design new mentoring programs and to improve existing ones.

Keywords:

• mentoring program
• blended mentoring
• higher education
• student evaluation
• first-year students