Online Doctoral Cohort Mentors: Model Implementation and Evaluation

Abstract

Doctoral students benefit extensively from direct mentorship throughout their degree programs and this mentorship can be particularly beneficial for doctoral students completing their degrees in the online format. This study provides an analysis of the implementation of a Doctoral Cohort Mentor Model at the Online Campus of a mid-sized University. Internal and external needs of online doctoral students were explored. Further, online faculty needs and the experience of the initial group of mentors were evaluated utilizing the focus group method. Data were examined utilizing qualitative coding procedures and the results are discussed in the context of relevant theories pertaining to internal and external aspects of motivation.

Virtual Dissertation Circles: Student Engagement Strategies and Lessons Learned

“…Research demonstrates that involvement in mentoring relationships supports engagement of the mentors as well as the mentees (Dennis & Dimatteo-Gibson, 2022) and the faculty feedback shared during the was consistent with this. Faculty impacts centered around experiencing a sense of community during the session.…”

“…Administration and faculty serving the online campus housing the pilot described here aimed to provide support for fully online doctoral students while preserving the adjunct-faculty-based resource model applied to the campus. Over the life of the campus, several other key initiatives were implemented to this end, including a doctoral student colloquium model (Dennis, DiMatteo-Gibson, Halbert, Gonzalez, & Prioleau Byrd, 2020) and a doctoral student cohort mentor model (Dennis & DiMatteo-Gibson, 2022). More recently, a series of ongoing program-based meetups were implemented, which facilitate engagement among students, faculty and administrators and provides students with the opportunity to receive information, pose questions and connect with resources.…”