Supporting our eMentors
Having already identified our challenge to be that of providing timely, appropriate support for our staff - no matter what location - how then do we support our eMentors in their task?
Given the geographic spread of the Institute – we cover 14% of Victoria, from Mallacoota in the far east to Rosedale and from the High Country to the coast – supporting eMentors can be difficult at times. Indeed, such distance issues are at the heart of the need for a mentoring programme.
To address these difficulties, a range of support structures have been set up.
It should be noted that wherever possible, technologies have been chosen to introduce and/or reinforce eMentor skills.
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eForum
To encourage the use of eForum software/facilities, an online forum was set up to assist eMentors to communicate with each other and hopefully find answers to common issues.
Many of the ementors had not accessed forums/boards/blogs before and this was a new experience. The forum was kept simple in design, limited in offerings - with the emphasis on ease of use and maximum benefit.
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Website
A site was set up on the intranet site and mirrored on the extranet, to allow use by Outreach staff.
The aim of the site was two-fold – acting as a resource for eMentors and an information point for general staff enquiries. |
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Chat Sessions
As well as a standard text-based chat session, eMentors have trialled the use of the CompuEd Voice Chat rooms and have discussed the possible use of Elluminate software.
Feedback on the CompuEd room was extremely positive and the meeting highly productive.
FYI, the group of six met for just over one hour, used voice, whiteboard, text messages and links to URL's in order to discuss eMentoring issues - all from their desk. By comparison, a face-to-face meeting would have involved a car booking, over 150 klm of travel, almost 2 hours of travel time and the possibility of eMentors being unable to attend because of other commitments during the three hours.
A great saving but the real value was that the eMentors had experienced a new technology, it worked, they were enthusiastic - and would pass this enthusiasm and experience on to colleagues. |
Caution - eMentor at work!
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Professional Development Sessions
The Institute maintains an on-line PD Calendar, which offers all staff PD sessions. Most are provided free of charge by in-house tutors, whilst those that have a fee attached are generally funded by teams.
eMentors have already been offered PD sessions related to:
- The new room booking system
- Utilising Outlook's features
- "What's inside the box" - intro to PC components
- QLS training
in addition to our normal PD sessions.
In the coming month, as a result of their feedback, we are running sessions for eMentors in
- Intro to Digital Video
- Digital Camera basics
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