ONLINE PEER MENTORING: ANALYSIS OF DISCUSSION BOARD INTERACTION AMONG UNDERGRADUTE PRESERVICE EDUCATION STUDENTS
Abstract: This paper explores the patterns of communication among students in an online mentoring program designed for cross-level peer mentoring. This peer mentoring program was developed to address observations that students in an online undergraduate program, and in particular new students, had many questions about program requirements and were unsure how to navigate courses thus creating inequality among students adjusting to the online learning platform. The online mentoring provides a means for the students to discuss, share, and learn from one another. This study used interpretive content analysis to analyze and describe student interactions in the peer mentoring program, providing insight into the discussions by demonstrating topics of interest to the students, thereby showing how the students interacted in these settings.
Presider: Denise Shaw, Central Washington University