E-mentoring in an Online Course: Benefits and Challenges to E-mentors

S Williams, J Sunderman, J Kim International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2012

This article describes the outcomes of an e-mentoring scheme used as a functional component within an online graduate course in human resource development. During the online course, individual students engaged in independent field projects, drawing upon advice and guidance from distanced practitioners who served as e-mentors. E-mentors were paired with students to guide the success of the individual field projects. As part of the design of the online course, an evaluation was carried out to assess the experience of the e-mentors, with a focus on perceived benefits and challenges of the e-mentors. Presented is a brief overview of the ementoring scheme, the e-mentoring assessment methodology, and the reported outcomes of the ementoring experience by the e-mentors.