On Tuesday 7th July, Manuel and I gave a workshop presentation on mentor roles and coordination of mentors in MOOCs. The workshop was part of the Joint European Summer School on Technology Enhance Learning (JTEL) on the beautiful island of Ischia, Italy.
The workshop provided some background on the theories of online learning and mentoring (such as Salmon’s 5 step model of online learning) that we consider relevant for the FutureLearn MOOC platform.
Salmon’s (2000) 5 step model:
We drew on ideas from our paper Mentors as connectors at eMOOCs 2015 and our experiences as University of Southampton mentors and coordinators. Participants then split into groups to plan a mentoring strategy for a MOOC of their choice.
The participants were encouraged to consider a range of decisions for planning a mentoring strategy:
- Selection of mentor types – content experts, teachers, technical experts
- Mentor roles – managerial, social, pedagogical, technical
- Training – familiarising mentors with MOOC content
- Reporting processes – managing mentors and monitoring course activity
We had good feedback on the session, and really enjoyed the workshop, the summer school, and the great Italian summer weather!
