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Background Virtual activities, hybrid work and virtual mentoring have become part of the ongoing milieu of academic medicine. As the shift to remote mentoring continues to evolve, it is now possible to adapt, refine, and improve tools to support thriving mentoring relationships that take place virtually. This study explores strategies for virtual mentoring as a cornerstone for effective training programs among senior mentors participating in an ongoing mentoring program. Methods We conducted a qualitative study among prior and current participants of an ongoing “Mentoring the Mentors” program about key strategies for optimizing virtual mentoring. Data were coded and analyzed following a thematic analysis approach. Results Respondents were mostly female (62%), white (58%), and associate (39%) or full professors (32%). We found that, with the expansion of hybrid and fully remote work, there are now fewer opportunities for informal but important chance meetings between mentors and mentees; however, virtual mentoring provides opportunities to compensate for reduced interactivity normally experienced in the workplace. The heightened need to plan and be more deliberate in the virtual sphere was woven throughout narratives and was the foundation of most recommendations. Specifically, a central obstacle for respondents was that spontaneous conversations were harder to initiate because virtual conversations are expected to have set agendas. Conclusions Developing new ways to maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships in a virtual training environment, including opportunities for serendipitous and informal engagement, is critical to the success of virtual mentoring programs.

Purpose Mentoring supports children, adolescents and young adults on their career paths and presents an important extracurricular educational format. The COVID-19 pandemic created a strong impetus for the deployment of virtual mentoring programs (VMPs), in which mentors and mentees communicate completely or predominantly through information and communication technologies (ICTs). Because it is unclear whether VMPs remain an attractive offer to mentors and mentees in post-pandemic times, this study aims to investigate the specific motivations of mentors and mentees to participate in VMPs and to draw conclusions about the effective design of VMPs. Design/methodology/approach In a qualitative study, the authors recruited 200 university students for an online survey, in which participants provided text responses regarding their motivations to participate in a youth or academic VMP as a mentor or mentee. Findings Potential mentors and mentees expect social components in VMPs. However, the results suggest that participants expect less psychosocial compared to career-related support from virtual mentoring, expect meaningful connections to be established only to a certain extent and do not expect role modeling from mentors. Furthermore, participants voiced mixed opinions about the virtual nature of mentoring programs, revealing a general field of tension (i.e. virtuality improves flexibility vs virtuality impairs relationship building). On this basis, design suggestions regarding VMPs are provided. Originality/value This study expands existing knowledge about VMPs by analyzing relevant factors when forming the intention to participate in a mentoring program, considering both youth and academic mentoring.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of doctoral nursing education students who participated in a virtual mentoring program. A phenomenological design was used to enable the researchers to gain an understanding of the research phenomenon. The three patterns that emerged during the study were Confirmation of Mentoring, Building Communities, and Learning the Role of Doctoral Student. Under the pattern of Confirmation of Mentoring were the themes of Receiving Academic Support and Receiving Personal Support. Under the pattern of Building Communities were the themes of Getting to Know Mentors and Understanding the Importance of Relationships. Under the pattern of Learning of Role of Doctoral Student were the themes of Balancing Time and Learning Technology. Additional research is needed to more fully explore virtual mentoring within doctoral programs.

To explore the lived experiences of research-focused doctoral students and graduates who participated in a virtual mentoring program. Faculty mentoring of doctoral nursing students is at a critical juncture, as a lack of mentors and experienced researchers exists to assist the next generation of nurse educators. Additionally, few nursing schools offer the mentoring support necessary to further the research trajectories of doctorally prepared nurse educators. Descriptive phenomenological approach Semi-structured interviews Data analysis revealed four themes: formalizing the mentoring, building the relationship, adapting to the doctoral role, and mentoring others. As online doctoral nursing educational programs abound, virtual mentoring programs are essential to support doctoral nursing education and doctoral students. However, to date, limited research exists regarding formalized virtual mentoring programs in doctoral nursing education.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate mentors' and mentees' perspectives of the mentor role within an education doctoral mentoring program at a mid-sized public institution.Design/methodology/approachData from individual interviews with mentors and mentees were collected as part of a larger case study of a doctoral mentoring program. Mentees were doctor of education (EdD) students in their first and second years of the program. Mentors were identified as individuals who graduated from or are further along in the doctoral program. Five (N = 5) mentees and seven (N = 7) mentors participated in interviews, which were then transcribed and coded to identify emergent themes, along with transcripts of presentations given by the mentors.FindingsFour themes emerged within the data: differentiating support roles, mentoring as a way to identify gaps in doctoral student needs, mentoring as support for doctoral student success and ways to provide suggestions for mentoring program improvement. Results indicated that mentors and mentees viewed the mentor role as being unique from the roles of faculty advisor and dissertation chair. Mentors and mentees alike responded positively to virtual mentoring.Research limitations/implicationsParticipation by mentors and mentees was limited to first- and second-year doctoral students; thus, dissertation-stage students' perceptions of mentoring could not be determined. Implications include the value of mentoring in filling the gaps of support for doctoral students and the capability of mentoring programs to be adapted to unexpected circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis study targets scholar-practitioner students in an EdD program, who are often overlooked by mentoring literature, and distinguishes research between faculty mentoring and mentoring performed by other students/recent graduates. Additionally, the pandemic gave the authors an opportunity to explore adapting mentoring to virtual formats.

In this randomized control study, we evaluated science teachers’ pedagogical practices via classroom observations following ongoing, intensive, and structured instructional support sessions. These sessions included virtual professional development (VPD) and virtual mentoring and coaching (VMC) that accompanied a literacy-infused science curriculum. Using a low-inference observational instrument, we explored the direct impact of VPD and VMC on fifth-grade science teachers’ observed time allocation in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) validation study. The observations were collected three times during science instruction from 121 teachers in 68 schools from 35 public school districts in the U.S. state of Texas, during the 2017-2018 school year. Preliminary findings revealed pedagogical differences in time allocation among teachers between treatment and control classrooms. We identified improved instructional practices within treatment classrooms, which suggests the intervention had a positive effect by enhancing the quality of pedagogy as well as the content-area instruction in science. In this randomized control study, we evaluated science teachers’ pedagogical practices via classroom observations following ongoing, intensive, and structured instructional support sessions. These sessions included virtual professional development (VPD) and virtual mentoring and coaching (VMC) that accompanied a literacy-infused science curriculum. Using a low-inference observational instrument, we explored the direct impact of VPD and VMC on fifth-grade science teachers’ observed time allocation in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) validation study. The observations were collected three times during science instruction from 121 teachers in 68 schools from 35 public school districts in the U.S. state of Texas, during the 2017-2018 school year. Preliminary findings revealed pedagogical differences in time allocation among teachers between treatment and control classrooms. We identified improved instructional practices within treatment classrooms, which suggests the intervention had a positive effect by enhancing the quality of pedagogy as well as the content-area instruction in science.

Minoritized health sciences students report experiencing social isolation and discrimination, and cite the lack of faculty representation as barriers to their success. While virtual mentoring can increase sense of belonging and connectedness, these effects have not been examined in minoritized health sciences students. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether virtual mentoring from faculty and peers could decrease social isolation and promote social belonging among minoritized first-year physical therapy and nursing students. Using a mixed methods explanatory sequential design, racial and ethnic minority physical therapy and nursing students (n = 8) received virtual mentoring and attended virtual networking events while students from across the health profession programs served as a comparison group (n = 16). While virtual mentoring relationships took longer to establish, there was an increase in satisfaction with mentoring for the intervention group compared with no improvement for the comparison group who received traditional academic advising. Qualitative data analysis revealed that mentors served as role models who had overcome barriers and persevered, decreasing feelings of isolation, and bolstering mentee confidence. A virtual multiple-mentor model can decrease isolation and promote social belonging for minoritized students and offer support for students even after the pandemic.

Nine women faculty, who are members of a global mentoring network, collaboratively designed a professional development project to explore their mentoring relationships and practices. Using a Learning Management System (LMS), they designed six modules with supplementary learning activities. Project findings highlight the need for a mentoring curriculum that: (a) helps members meet research and publication expectations; (b) addresses network tensions; (c) creates stronger network ties; (d) values each other's cultural histories and identities; and (e) recognizes their humanity as women academics who must balance life challenges and work expectations.

The proliferation of online graduate programs, and more recently, higher education institutions’ moves to online interactions due to the COVID-19 crisis, have led to graduate student mentoring increasingly occurring online. Challenges, strategies, and outcomes associated with online mentoring of graduate students are of primary importance for the individuals within a mentoring dyad and for universities offering online or blended graduate education. The nature of mentoring interactions within an online format presents unique challenges and thus requires strategies specifically adapted to such interactions. There is a need to examine how mentoring relationships have been, and can best be, conducted when little to no face-to-face interaction occurs. This paper undertook a literature review of empirical studies from the last two decades on online master’s and doctoral student mentoring. The main themes were challenges, strategies and best practices, and factors that influence the online mentoring relationship. The findings emphasized the importance of fostering interpersonal aspects of the mentoring relationship, ensuring clarity of expectations and communications as well as competence with technologies, providing access to peer mentor groups or cohorts, and institutional support for online faculty mentors. Within these online mentoring relationships, the faculty member becomes the link to an otherwise absent yet critical experience of academia for the online student, making it imperative to create and foster an effective relationship based on identified strategies and best practices for online mentoring.

Modern students belonging to generations A and Z cannot imagine their life without the virtual world, so there is a need to use innovative approaches to organizing lessons and extracurricular activities in foreign languages. Digital technology plays an important role in this process, but not all teachers can quickly adapt to work in the new format. The issue is especially relevant for beginning foreign language teachers who do not have sufficient experience to effectively organize extracurricular work as an integral form of teaching foreign languages. This paper aims to consider virtual mentoring as a form of adaptation of teachers to modern digital technologies for organizing extracurricular activities of students belonging to generations A and Z. The analysis of scientific and methodological literature on this topic allowed the authors to identify a description of particular cases of the use of digital educational systems in teaching various aspects of a foreign language in the classroom and the need for the formation of digital literacy of the student. The paper clarifies how extracurricular activities can improve the students’ progress in a foreign language, proposes a form of virtual mentoring as a modern and convenient model of interaction that can increase the virtual competence of foreign language teachers, highlights and describes the features of children of generation A and Z, based on the study of which it was established the need to introduce a large number of digital technologies and the transition to a distance learning format when organizing extracurricular activities.