Definition

Characteristics of Mentorship

Responsibilities

Tips and Tools

A mentor helps the student develop academic and professional skills to become an independent learner

In the classroom, instructors help students become more efficient and independent learners. You know how to create face-to-face learning that compels students to read, think deeply, listen and write.

Technology can also help you encourage learners to be more independent. Provide support for educational development by having students participate in activities that allow them to:

Skills 

• Make your lecture outline available in advance via e-mail or your ANGEL course. Fill in the details during class.  Note: This does not replace reading the book or taking notes, it merely makes student note taking easier and perhaps better organized.

• Put notes on your ANGEL course "Lessons" page the day after the lecture for students to use as a model.

• Assign problems that can be solved only by using specific electronic resources. Give students simple problems at first and as they progress, increase the challenge. For example, initial problems may direct students to a particular Web site link (an on-line newspaper or periodical).

• Explain to your students the differences between observing and note taking, between concept and recall, between thinking and fact. Make these examples available in your ANGEL course by providing hand outs for students to print, partial notes, outlines, or graphs with space for notes below so that students have some but not all the information they need.

• Create an FAQ page for your course and post it in ANGEL.

• Create a glossary or equation resource page and post it in ANGEL.

• Post outlines on your ANGELcourse page, so that students know what to expect and can use them as a guide for taking notes.

• Before class begins, send an e-mail that includes key words/concepts/names/dates (whatever is appropriate) to facilitate note taking.

• Have your lectures recorded through the Dial Access On-Line Lecture Review.

• Post review notes the day after class.

Foster Participation

• Give students a topic to think about for the next class discussion. Set up teams in your ANGEL course, then have a different team begin/lead the next class discussion each day/week.

• Encourage participation and discussion outside the classroom through the use of e-mail, message boards, polls, surveys, news articles, links, and chat rooms.

• Use message boards and dropboxes to facilitate collaborative learning in a class. Each student can be assigned to a group and all assignments can be designed to be completed through the tools available within ANGEL. The facilitator can posts the final product to the class by posting a file under the "Lessons" tab in order to share information with classmates. The instructor is a member of all teams and monitors the activity.