Jennifer Seron

Department of Education and Human Development, SUNY Brockport

EDI 581.61, Technology for Learning

Dr. Papia Bawa

May 21, 2021

Online learning has, for some, become the norm and is likely to continue to expand in the future. Yet, a Pew Research Center study in April, 2020 reported that "59% of U.S. parents with lower incomes say their child may face digital obstacles in schoolwork" (Vogels, 2020). Globally, the digital divide is also dire (UNESCO, 2021). Lack of access to learning technologies has potential long term negative consequences for students who are at a greater disadvantage when it comes to the "homework gap" (Auxier & Anderson, 2020). For a graphic representation of key digital divide data in the US and globally for comparison, see Appendices A1, A2, A3, & A4. In this context, my research question is: Does the learning technology of virtual (remote, and/or online) mentoring adequately serve mentees and facilitate positive outcomes for those who most benefit from mentoring? Based on the evidence reviewed here, virtual mentoring does appear to serve diverse mentees globally, even those using the mentoring learning technology of telephones.

Many people still have the misconception that for mentoring to be effective it must be done in person. For example, on March 7, 2020, the New York State Mentoring Program sent a letter to mentors stating: "Along with the temporary closing of New York State schools our mentoring sessions have also been suspended to limit the exposure of everyone involved in our programs" (Cuomo, 2020). Contrary to both the aforementioned assumption and the example, virtual mentoring can be an effective way for diverse individuals to learn needed coping skills, as exemplified by three articles in this synthesis. 

In this literature synthesis the author provides evidence based on three reputable, research-based articles that use of virtual, online, and remote technology can provide an effective framework for mentoring groups varying from German secondary 5th – 13th grade students through novice, 1st-year teachers in Brazil. Technology was used as the means to help teach needed skills and inspire girls in grades 5-13 to maintain interest in STEM (Stoeger, et al., 2020); to help new Maori remote-learning undergraduates in New Zealand succeed (Vasudha & Palmer, 2017); and to help novice teachers in Brazil better cope with challenges (Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al., 2017). In each of these cases, virtual, remote, or online technology was used to promote learning of key academic and workplace skills needed for success and retention. Each study identified demographics in need of additional support to maintain interest or to succeed. The mentoring in the three studies cited was not done in person but instead used technology. Although CyberMentor was the only learning technology with its own web site (Stoeger, et al., 2020), technology like email and the telephone were used in the other two settings. Even via remote access using technology, the skills mentees learned from mentors helped them succeed and thrive in learning environments or work-situations where they might have otherwise failed (McLaughlin, 2010). For equity reasons, I chose mentoring as the topic of this literature synthesis. Below, please find information, charts, and visual aids related to each article. 

The databases I searched for relevant articles included Google Scholar, ResearchGate, arXiv, Google. The keywords I searched included: online mentoring, STEM online mentoring, educational technology for mentoring, mentoring technology, learning tech for mentoring.

Each of the three articles in this synthesis had a different research methodology that employed a different type of technology to accomplish their goals of teaching key skills that would benefit participants using mentors in a virtual environment. In the STEM article by Stoeger, et al. (2020), the authors utilized CyberMentor, a German online mentoring system capable of accommodating up to 800 mentees and 800 mentors (p. 153) who communicate via email, generating data ready to be analyzed. In the article by Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al., (2017), the authors chose to utilize a narrative-descriptive approach and email; they compiled the results and analyzed then synthesized the data consisting of emails, journals, and teaching cases (p. 516). In the article by Vasudha & Palmer (2017) the authors utilized only telephone as a way to connect remote Maori first-year undergraduate mentees to their 2nd and 3rd year Maori peer-mentors who were on-site students. The methodology included training the 7 student-mentors and providing ongoing support from the mentor Supervisor (Vasudha & Palmer, 2017, 541). The methodology in regard to data seemed to be entirely based on university retention evidence from year to year, except for a "preliminary survey" that generated rich feedback from students (Vasudha & Palmer, 2017, 542 – 543). 

The three journal papers included in this synthesis all seek to remedy societal problems using technology as the means for learners, mentees, to access the mentors for needed learning. 

1. Online mentoring of STEM secondary school girls in Germany (Stoeger, et al., 2020) used CyberMentor, a learning technology through which mentees and mentors emailed one another. In this article the authors provide clear evidence, using thousands of data points over a period of 9 years, that each of 3 formats of online mentoring were effective at maintaining and increasing girls' STEM activities, electives and expressed career interest (Stoeger, et al., 2021). To reiterate, the learning technology utilized was email via Cybermentor (Schirner, n.d.).
2. Virtual mentoring of Maori undergrads in New Zealand (Vasudha & Palmer, 2017) was accomplished using only the learning technology of telephones. In this article the authors provide national New Zealand census facts to document the need to retain Maori students in higher educational environments. They further note that at the university with the highest population of Maori, Massey University, the first year Maori students and those who study remotely were most at risk of not completing the program. The authors then proceed to explain the Maori Mentoring Program (MMP) that the Business School tested out in 2014. The results in regard to retention were so positive that the program was extended to 2015, again with improved retention of Maori remote-learning students. The data cited was mainly university data on retention percentages as well as anecdotal data, including from an early survey given to participants in MMP. Because of the clearly beneficial Massey University results in regard to retention of remote Maori students, as well as anecdotal evidence of leadership development of peer-to-peer 2nd and 3rd year mentors, the program was      being extended to other departments. To reiterate, this virtual mentoring program was done entirely via telephone calls each week. 
3. Online mentoring of new teachers in Brazil (Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al., 2017) was done using the learning technology of email. In this article the authors present descriptive and narrative information collected from over 4,000 emails between participants in a program intended to provide support to novice public school teachers in Brazil. This Online Mentoring Program (OMP) was done entirely via email. Professional development and check-ins with the 10 experienced public-school teacher-mentors in the program took place during weekly emails with 3 local university professors with whom the program was      collaboratively organized. Upon analysis of the results of this study, a consistent timeline emerged that reflected the experience of those students in the program over the two years of online mentoring. To reiterate, this online mentoring program was done entirely via email. 

Through exploring virtual mentoring, I discovered that this type of learning can be incredibly valuable to diverse learners and professionals, even more important than I'd thought when I conceived of this project. At the end of this paper please find informative Table 1 that summarizes the key information within each of the three articles and is central to a synthesis of these 3 articles. Figures 1-4 are logos of the various technologies mentioned in this synthesis. Tables 2 and 3 are screenshots of key research findings from two of the three synthesis articles (the third had no images).

In Table 1, note that each of the three articles addressed the issue of the value of virtual mentoring learning technology in their own way, but they all found that the online mentoring approach they used was effective. Each research article provided support for the benefits of virtual mentoring learning technologies in different settings for different age ranges throughout the world. Review Table 1, key information from each of the 3 articles.

The three articles document that mentoring using learning technology like telephones, email, and CyberMentor can help underrepresented (STEM-loving 5th – 13th grade girls in Germany), underserved students (remote, 1st year undergraduate Maori students in New Zealand) and at-risk novice teachers who would benefit from additional support in Brazil, respectively. But notice that except for Germany's CyberMentor (Schirner, n.d.), each of the other two articles noted that the authors needed to create their own learning technology- platform and framework for virtual mentoring. And if you remember, Vasudha & Palmer (2017) utilized telephones as the learning technology. This is the state of mentoring in education.

Right now, mentoring in the human resources (HR) sector is on the forefront of technological innovation according to Ramirez (2019) of HR Executive, due to new aps like Chronus and inclusion by Next Play of artificial intelligence (AI) in matchmaking. Next Play is a company whose web site states: "Ellen is an intelligent mobile app that personalizes career development tailored for every employee, at scale" (Next Play, 2019). Chronus' web site states that they serve "6 continents, 1,000+ programs with 1,500,000 users impacted" with software that also uses "AI-powered matching" (Chronus, n.d.). This technology and AI software was created, and is being use in business settings. There is also long-term mentoring company, iMentor who "partner[s] with high schools in low income communities" (iMentor, n.d.) and say that they will match every single high school student in an iMentor school with a college graduate for three years of mentoring. Additionally, there might be potential in something Campbell, et al. (2016) termed "distributed mentoring" when they were studying how fanfiction site communities learn, writing: 

"Distributed mentoring exemplifies one instance of how networked technology affords new extensions of behaviors that were previously bounded by time and space. Distributed mentoring holds potential for application beyond the spontaneous mentoring observed in this investigation and may help students receive diverse, thoughtful feedback in formal learning environments as well." 

There is great potential for the future of learning technology for mentoring in educational environments so that well-meaning global researchers do not need to struggle to better serve diverse students and educators who would most benefit from the key learning-scaffolding that mentoring provides parallel to academic learning. Just as workplace mentoring happens parallel but complementary to work, it is time that educational mentoring using innovative learning technology happened parallel to education. Within this synthesis section the author has attempted to contextualize the mentoring learning technology utilized in the research articles within the broader global context of technology used for other types of mentoring. Check out the site for Germany's CyberMentor learning technology. Please note Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are hyperlinked logos of online mentoring companies to explore further.

Throughout EDI 581.61 we have explored technology for learning in a variety of ways. For example, we learned about technology to benefit diverse individuals in the context of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), digital citizenship, digital equity, and cultural competence. One of the reasons behind inclusion is that we each have our own unique abilities and as humans our culture would benefit from everyone's unique contribution; through education individual humans can transcend limitations of the context into which we are born and actualize our potential. It is equitable to care about others and to design instructional products that include diverse people.

The missing piece and justification for inclusion of mentoring in the learning technology we create, is that what happens in school is only one small portion of life. Academic subject-learning must be supplemented by mentoring, especially in order for diverse, traditionally underserved students like girls in STEM (Stoeger, et al., 2020), Maori in New Zealand (Vasudha & Palmer, 2017), and new public school teachers in Brazil (Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al., 2017) to maintain interest, learn key skills needed for them to succeed in school, and thrive at their careers, respectively. 

In this literature synthesis I attempted to provide three serious, research-based articles as support for mentoring as a supplement to education for traditionally underserved students (STEM girls; remote 1st year Maori undergraduates) and novice teachers who otherwise would have had no support or scaffolding. In this context, the three most important findings are first and foremost, that because diverse learners benefit from mentoring to the extent that weekly contact can mean the difference between success and failure, it seems that mentoring should be included by instructional designers as a necessary component of educational programs and products.

The second most important finding was that however different in form, location, and subject area, online and virtual technology can be used as a means to provide educational scaffolding to those who most need it (Stoeger, et al., 2020, Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al., 2017, Vasudha & Palmer, 2017). 

The third most important finding is that although there are a variety of online commercial mentoring opportunities in addition to the customized modalities presented in the three research articles, New York State's public mentoring program was shuttered during COVID-19 because the public program was not set up for online or virtual mentoring and unable or unwilling to transition to online mentoring, leaving vulnerable students unserved during at a time when the mentors would have been of most use.

To summarize, each of the three articles synthesized had positive feedback about the virtual, remote and/or online mentoring learning that happened. Stoeger, et al. (2020) wrote: "Our study replicates existing research and provides novel findings on the effectiveness of online mentoring in the context of promoting girls in STEM" (p. 170). Vasudha & Palmer (2017), wrote: "The MMP serves as an excellent example of a virtual mentoring programme that can enable institutions to meet their own diversity goals as well as the larger diversity goals of society" (p. 543), and "Having Maori student mentors contributed significantly towards forming a rapport with the Maori student proteges and towards the overwhelming success of the programme" ( p. 543). Finally, Medieros Rodrigues Reali, et al. (2017) wrote: "For the mentees, the difficulties related to their professional teaching practice of the first years were worked out with the mentors who helped them during their participation in the OMP" (p. 518). 

In conclusion, the three articles presented demonstrate that technology for mentoring can be utilized from secondary to professional career settings to increase success and retention of those most likely to fail, and that mentoring need not take place in person for mentees to benefit. Thus, in the future, the evidence of the value of virtual mentoring in these three articles begins an argument to justify that that there should be a public online mentoring program created within New York State. The fact that online mentoring works for diverse students and helps novice teachers provides evidence to support the argument that in the future as instructional designers we should incorporate mentoring as a key component of product and program design. By incorporating online mentoring as part of our learning technologies, we provide needed scaffolding for traditionally underserved learners who will most benefit. 

In the future, it could be that businesses creating AI mentoring products like Chronus and Next Play could also benefit from academic research related to the relative effectiveness of their mentoring products with clear data as to exactly where improvement is needed. Maybe business, in this cooperative way, could be encouraged to share their mentoring products with the public education sector, or customize learning technology products for educational mentoring, to the future benefit of students and global citizenry. 

Auxier, B. & Anderson, M. (2020, March 16). As schools close due to the coronavirus, some U.S. students face a digital ‘homework gap’. Fact Tank: News in the Numbers, Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/16/as-schools-close-due-to-the-coronavirus-some-u-s-students-face-a-digital-homework-gap/ 

Campbell, J. A., Aragon, C., Katie Davis, K., Evans, S., Evans, A., & Randall, D.P. (2016, February). Thousands of Positive Reviews: Distributed Mentoring in Online Fan Communities. CSCW '16: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing. San Francisco, CA, USA. 691–704. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2819934

Cuomo, M.R. (2020, March 7). New York State Mentoring Program. https://www.ny.gov/programs/new-york-state-mentoring-program 

Frank, L. (n.d.). Online Mentoring: How Technology Can Enhance Mentoring Connections. Chronus. https://chronus.com/blog/online-mentoring-how-technology-can-enhance-mentoring-connections 

iMentor. (n.d.). Mentoring for college success [Website for high schools]. https://imentor.org/ 

McLaughlin, C. (2010). Mentoring: What is it? How do we do it and how do we get more of it? Health Services Research 45(3): 871–884. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2875765/

Medeiros Rodriguez Reali, A. M., Graca Nicoletti Mizukami, M., & Simoes Puccinelli Tancredi, R. M. (2017). Mentoring novice teachers: An online experience in Brazil. In The Sage Handbook of Mentoring by Eds. Clutterbuck, D. A., Kochan, F., Lunsford, L. G., Dominguez, N. & Haddock-Millar, J. SAGE Publications. 513-519. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-mentoring/book245790

Next Play. (2019). Unleash the network effect at your company [Web site about online AI-based workplace mentoring]. https://nextplay.webflow.io/

Ramirez, J. C. (2019, January 8). These new technologies are transforming mentoring programs: The applications provide new means for facilitating and enhancing meaningful mentoring relationships. HR Executive. https://hrexecutive.com/these-new-technologies-are-transforming-mentoring-programs/ 

Schirner, S. (n.d.). CyberMentor: Online mentoring program for girls in STEM [Web site devoted to online STEM mentoring for girls]. Global Talent Mentoring by the World Giftedness Foundation. https://globaltalentmentoring.org/pi/cybermentor/ 

Seron, J. S. (2021). Virtual mentoring synthesis [Screenshots and artwork on the web site]. http://www.jenniferseron.com 

Stoeger, H., Heilemann, M., Debatin, T., Hopp, M. D. S., Schirner, S. & Ziegler, A. (2020, August 29). Nine years of online mentoring for secondary school girls in STEM: an empirical comparison of three mentoring formats. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Special Issue: Mentoring: Theoretical Background, Empirical Findings, and Practical Applications. 153-173. Wiley Periodicals on behalf of New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14476

UNESCO. (2021, April 21). Press release: Startling digital divides in distance learning emerge. Teacher Task Force. https://en.unesco.org/news/startling-digital-divides-distance-learning-emerge 

Vasudha, B. & Palmer, F. (2017). The virtual Maori Mentoring Programme, Massey Business School, New Zealand. In The Sage Handbook of Mentoring by Eds. Clutterbuck, D. A., Kochan, F., Lunsford, L. G., Dominguez, N. & Haddock-Millar, J. SAGE Publications. 539 – 543. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-mentoring/book245790

Vogels, E. A. (2020, September 10). 59% of U.S. parents with lower incomes say their child may face digital obstacles in schoolwork. Fact Tank: News in the Numbers, Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/10/59-of-u-s-parents-with-lower-incomes-say-their-child-may-face-digital-obstacles-in-schoolwork/