Faculty Mentors' Perspectives on E‐Mentoring Post‐Professional Occupational Therapy Doctoral Students

The objective of this study was to investigate faculty perspectives of faculty‐to‐student e‐mentoring in an online post‐professional doctor of occupational therapy program. In a retrospective mixed‐method design, nine faculty members described features and outcomes of e‐mentoring 48 doctoral students. Online survey results were analysed quantitatively for descriptive statistics; transcripts from structured interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results showed that successful, satisfactory e‐mentoring is student‐centered, flexible, frequent, academically and psychosocially supportive; faculty members must be skilled in adapting e‐mentoring to the needs and objectives of each mentee; e‐mentoring provides opportunities for faculty members and students to achieve academic and professional objectives and growth. The findings suggest that implementation of e‐mentoring may be a useful model in other occupational therapy programs. There is a need for future studies with broader participant pool, observable measures of e‐mentoring, standardized measures of satisfaction and success and comparison between e‐mentoring with and without web camera. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Source: Occupational Therapy International - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Research Article Source Type: research