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