Evaluating a peer leadership model in a large scale peer mentoring program

Abstract

Retaining students in engineering and the sciences depends largely on the availability of resources for first-year students, and as a result, mentoring programs have evolved to guide and support new engineering students1. In the past, a peer mentoring program at a large research university on the east coast was led by one administrative faculty member. A major structural change to the program was made this year, to incorporate six peer leaders, all veteran mentors, who assumed many of the tasks of the original coordinator. Along with expanding leadership, other changes included shortening the program length from a full semester to ten weeks and utilizing Scholar, the University's web-based course management system, to streamline the administration of the program. At the conclusion of the program, mentors were asked to complete an optional survey to evaluate the success of the program. Questions were focused on the relative success of the changes made to the program structure, including the leadership change, and shortened program length. Additionally, mentors were asked to comment on the use of Scholar and its ability to facilitate prompt feedback for weekly reports. The results of this survey have been analyzed and conclusions have been drawn. Finally, a model, based on the successes and failures of this year's program, has been outlined which can be used to implement an improved peer leadership model for future peer mentoring programs. The results of the survey data led to the formation of several recommended changes to be implemented including a reworking of the online course management system and a predetermined group of mentors assigned to each peer leader for the duration of the program. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2010.