Mentoring programs are known to have a positive impact on student success. However, a typical mentoring program is offered at college level in traditional format and the mentors are mostly from the academia. The Professional Science Master's (PSM) Biotechnology program at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has developed a novel online community by customizing an open-source learning management system (LMS) into a mentoring interaction platform. The aim of the project was to increase academe-industry synergy and better prepare the workforce of tomorrow. The strategy was to develop an online mentoring program that would pair professionals in the biotechnology field with new graduate students, and provide them advice on their professional and career goals. Mentor Assistants, alumni of the degree program, serve as liaisons between the mentors and their mentees. The uniqueness of this program is first, it provides mentoring in a virtual format; second, it is focused on graduate students; third, the mentoring starts together and runs in parallel with the degree program, and lastly the mentors are established professionals in the field.
A mentoring platform was developed using an open-source LMS software called Claroline. This was customized to allow several activities including video conferencing, chat, forums and sharing documents. Mentors were recruited through various organizations and social networks. Students who were relatively new to the master's degree program were asked to apply and they were selected for the mentoring program based on their communication skills, motivation, drive and competency for graduate level work. Both the mentors and the mentees were given an orientation session which included expectations and logistics. The assessment of the outcome of the program includes following a student's GPA and course performance. Duration of degree completion and impact on student retention is also to be monitored. Assessment of the mentoring program and the process is through an evaluation instrument to be completed by each participant at the end of each term.
The major challenges encountered prior to the launch of the pilot were in the recruitment of mentors and students to the program. After the launch the challenge was to keep the momentum in the relationship between the mentor and mentee, but this was mitigated to a large extent by having exceptionally competent mentor assistants. Getting the participants to use the platform was yet another challenge but strategies were devised to encourage its use by at least the students.
In terms of dissemination, the platform that has been developed is easy to customize and share with other institutions. In general this project can be easily adopted and adapted by interested institutions/organizations. All the components that have been developed can be used as is or customized by the user. The limiting factor in this project is going to be the number of participating mentors, which will also determine the sustenance of this program. One of the key success factors would be the commitment and enthusiasm of the people directly involved in the project. The results so far indicate that the mentors and the mentees find the program rewarding and it has helped them in their professional growth. There is some indication that the participating students had better academic performance than the control group. The impact of this program will also be measured in terms of student retention and time to degree completion.
