Peer Mentoring of At-Distance Students: A Resource for Tertiary Institutions

The resource includes examples from the pilot Extramural Student Peer Mentoring Project established by the Social Work programme at Massey University’s Manawatu campus. That project, funded by Ako Aotearoa, led to the development of this resource for use in other student mentoring projects

Project background

In 2008 we ran a pilot Extramural Student Peer Mentoring Project in the Social Work programme at Massey University in response to the problem of high rates of failure and non-completion among our first year students. The aims of this project were (a) to assist achievement and retention through peer mentoring; (b) to develop a resource for at-distance peer mentoring; (c) to maximise student use of existing university supports; and (d) to extend current research on student achievement and retention.

The problem of non-completion is widely acknowledged by institutions and researchers in New Zealand, and is increasingly a focus of tertiary education policy. Scott and Smart (2005) found that only 40% of domestic students starting a qualification in 1998 had completed after five years; 51% had left after five years without completing, and 9% were still studying towards that qualification¹. The highest level of attrition appears to be among ‘non-traditional’ tertiary students from groups that have been under-represented in tertiary education².

As a group, our first-year undergraduate extramural social work students conform closely to the profile of non-traditional students who are most ‘at-risk’ of non-completion³. Our students are often mature and returning to study with very rusty academic skills and no formal school qualifications (or obtained many years ago). Many are Māori and Pasifika students from backgrounds where tertiary education represents a very foreign, inaccessible culture. Many are supported in their study by family, church and employers. The majority are part-time students juggling significant non-study commitments such as paid work, community work and care-giving. As extramural students, most are quite isolated from their peers by distance and, frequently, by limited access to and knowledge about computers and the Internet. Yet, by disposition many of these students would prefer to learn in a group environment. And as students seeking practice-based vocational qualifications, many find academic learning quite challenging and have little knowledge of tertiary study skills and institutional expectations.

We ran our pilot peer mentoring project for students in two 100-level papers over two semesters in 2008, employing senior social work students to mentor new at-distance students with the aim of improving retention and achievement rates. Our mentors worked as a team, operating on weekday evenings, communicating with students by phone, email, text, and occasionally in person. We recorded the process, interventions and outcomes. We also evaluated current literature on mentoring and tertiary achievement and retention and integrated it with our findings and this resource.

Summary of findings and overall observations

Our peer mentoring interventions had positive outcomes in terms of achievement and retention, but not entirely in the forms expected! We saw a small improvement (overall 4% of students) in successful paper completions by first-year at-distance students (it is too soon to evaluation completion of whole qualifications). The more significant improvement was an increase (overall 8% of students) in rates of formal withdrawals by students, and an equivalent decrease in student DNC levels (‘Did Not Complete’). We regard a formal withdrawal from one or more papers as a better outcome than DNC, both in terms of academic and financial penalties, and for prospects of future study. Students who make a positive decision to formally withdraw from some courses, rather than simply ‘drop-out’ are more likely to successfully complete their remaining study programme; those who withdraw from all study in that semester may also be more likely to ‘stop-out’ and return to tertiary study at a later date, rather than ‘drop-out’ and never return4.

We can also make a number of observations about student achievement and retention based on our pilot project (the remainder of this resource develops a set of recommendations and directions for peer mentoring)

It quickly became clear from our pilot project that peer-mentoring teams need a well-defined brief. Many of the obstacles to successful completion that students encounter are beyond our control and concern other aspects of students’ lives. Our student peer mentors were not professional counsellors; their focus was on study related support although this often had a strong pastoral/social support dimension.

Many of our new students find the academic and institutional environment very foreign; this is particularly so for adult students and Māori and Pasifika students. A key mentoring function is to help students learn how to learn, how to be a student and to function within university systems.

Effective mentoring needs to be ‘front-end loaded’ – focused on early interventions and course planning support, to ensure that new students are ready for study and have manageable study commitments. Accurate, timely course planning and course advice proved critical. Our at-distance students often have very unrealistic study workloads, given their other non-study commitments and their lack of experience as students. For many students, mentoring support within a paper is insufficient; they actually need course planning assistance and, quite frequently, counselling to reduce their study load. Consequently, our mentors had to work closely with academic administrators on course advice matters. It was also quite apparent that some students were enrolled in full-time study (rather than part-time study) to qualify for student allowances. Such students may be very under-prepared for the demands of study.

Mentoring is time-consuming and resource-intensive; therefore, an effective project needs to be based on clear goals and a plan of interventions that are tailored to the needs of students (see later sections in this Resource). Without clear goals, the resources required and transaction costs are likely to make mentoring work unsustainable. It is often difficult to assess the effectiveness of specific interventions in the short-term. At times, mentors will put considerable time and effort into individual students to limited effect for reasons outside the mentors’ control.

Peer mentoring is an approach to supporting student retention and achievement that focuses on providing an affirming and accepting environment . However, mentoring is only ever part of a student retention and achievement strategy. Tertiary institutions can also provide a range of other academic and pastoral supports that address various aspects of students’ wellbeing. Institutions can both assist the student to integrate, and modify their own practices to better accommodate diverse students. The remainder of this report focuses on the specifics of establishing a peer mentoring project.

Conclusion

Peer mentoring is challenging, but can be hugely rewarding! As academic staff, we are committed to supporting our students to succeed and continue with their studies. Often, students experience barriers to study that are outside our control. But, we’re equally sure that most new students will go on to be successful returning students if they can acquire the skills for achieving in an academic institutional setting. That’s where effective peer mentoring comes into the picture.

Based on our experiences, we see the following elements as essential to a good student peer mentoring project:

• Clear objectives that inform a comprehensive semester-long plan of interventions.
• Clear principles and roles that underpin actions and interventions and prevent a haphazard reactive approach to the project’s work.
• Considerable time and resources to devote to the setup of a peer mentoring project – it is important to be generous with the budget and to have some funds for unexpected demands, and to not underestimate the resources required!
• Well trained mentors with the drive to provide friendly, helpful support to students.
• Strong administrative support, particularly in project implementation, and particularly with IT systems.
• A confidential, comfortable team space in which to run a regular phone and email mentoring team.
• Accurate electronic records of student contacts, both on the institutional system, and in protected systems storing personal and confidential information that is only accessible to the mentoring team.
• Ongoing relationships between mentors and key staff and services, which reduce duplication of supports and minimise the ‘spamming’ of students with information.
• Proactive mentoring that focuses on the strengths each student brings to their study, and supports students to build resiliency and complete under the weight of other commitments.

Kia kaha, good luck with your mentoring project, it’s worth it!

1. Scott, David and Warren Smart (2005). What factors make a difference to getting a degree in New Zealand? Wellington: Ministry of Education.
2. Zepke, N. & L. Leach (2005). Integration and adaptation: Approaches to the student retention and achievement puzzle. Active Learning in Higher Education 6 (46).
3. Elliot, A. (2002). Factors affecting first year students' decisions to leave university, in Changing agendas 'Te Ao Hurihuri', proceedings of the Sixth Pacific Rim Conference on First Year in Higher Education, 8-10 July 2002, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;
4. Scott, David and Warren Smart (2005). What factors make a difference to getting a degree in New Zealand? Wellington: Ministry of Education.
5. DesJardins, S., D. Ahlburg and B. McCall (1999) An event history model of student departure. Economics of Education Review, 18 (3), pp.375-390.
6. Rivers, Janet (Ed.) (2005). Supporting students in tertiary study: A summary of a synthesis of research on the impact of student support services on student outcomes in undergraduate tertiary study. Wellington: Ministry of Education

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