Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry Academia Partnership

Abstract

The Professional Science Master’s Biotechnology program at the University of Maryland University College implemented a novel online mentoring program that pairs masters’ students with mentors from the biotechnology industry. The program has grown from 19 mentor-mentee pairs in fall 2009 to 46 pairs in fall 2011. The student retention in the program is currently 80%. Data indicate that the students who continued participating after the first semester had completed more courses before joining the program than the students who dropped. The end-of semester questionnaires show general student satisfaction and provide specific examples of gains in the students’ ability to identify and pursue their career goals. The number of courses completed by the mentees was significantly higher than the number of courses completed by the comparison group, indicating a possible effect of their participation in the mentoring program. So far, more mentees graduated than the comparison group of non-participants, and in less overall time. As the program progresses, possible effects on students’ academic achievement and time-to-graduation will be reevaluated. The effectiveness of the mentoring program on improving the participants’ career prospects after graduation will also be examined.

E-Mentoring in Higher Education: A Structured Literature Review and Implications for Future Research

“…Article • To contribute to raising the quality of the mentoring process in the academic field [13,15,43] Conference papers • To foster positive mentor-student relationships through communication [14,34] Book chapters • To offer the mentees individualized support through of specific tools [38,39] Terminology Article • Mentor-mentee [7][8][9]12,13,15,16,32,41,42,44].…”

“…On the other hand, whereas the above authors focused on individual processes created for evaluation, Khan and Gogos [41] used an 180 • performance appraisal, where the mentees were evaluated by their mentors, peers, and (eventually) external agents, such biotechnology lab practitioners. The evaluators were chosen by the mentor, and the mentor informed the evaluators of the objectives set out in the mentee's action plan.…”

Using VineUp to Match Students with Alumni Industry Mentors in Engineering: A Pilot Study

“…Students were matched based on what they had in their applications. Khan & Gogos (2013) noted making the right match was challenging because pairing based on applications resulted in incompatible pairings due to the lack of motivation on the part of some of the mentees and because some mentees wanted general versus specific advice. They modified their matching procedures to include an interview before matching.…”

Social and Student Engagement and Support: The Sloan-C Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Programs

“…The University of Calgary, through its Student Union, enables students to serve as tutors or to find a tutor who will help students with difficult subject matter or to prepare for exams [54].…”