Mentoring.ca: types of mentoring programs featured on Canadian postsecondary education websites
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education
ISSN: 2046-6854
Article publication date: 18 May 2020
Issue publication date: 22 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
No research to date has explored mentoring programs on Canadian postsecondary institution websites or the kinds of mentoring programs, if any, that are present online. This study examined 96 unique Canadian postsecondary institutional websites and the online presence of 420 unique postsecondary mentoring programs.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers employed content analysis and emergent coding strategies to evaluate mentoring program information published on Canadian postsecondary websites.
Findings
The findings suggest that most mentoring programs with an online presence were peer (student-to-student or faculty-to-faculty) programs, followed by community member-to-student programs. Further, few programs (16) were student-to-faculty oriented, indicating that students could struggle to seek faculty mentorship if they desired it. However, of the 420 programs with an online presence, dozens of programs lacked enough information for the researchers to determine the stakeholders or purpose of the programs.
Originality/value
As the first study of its kind to evaluate mentoring program communication on Canadian postsecondary websites, this work informs mentoring program administrators on how to better communicate what their programs offer. Certain Canadian postsecondary institutions had an online presence for many more programs than did other institutions; for example, the University of Waterloo shared information on their website about 21 unique mentoring programs on its campus, whereas MacEwan University shared information about just two unique programs. This chasm represents a great deal of future research into the practice of how professionals communicate mentoring programs on postsecondary websites.
Keywords
Citation
Hobson, K. and Taylor, Z.W. (2020), "Mentoring.ca: types of mentoring programs featured on Canadian postsecondary education websites", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 279-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-09-2019-0089
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited