Software support for online mentoring programs: A research‐inspired design

D. Kevin O’Neill, Mark Weiler, Li Sha

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article provides an overview of Telementoring Orchestrator™ (TMO), a new web‐based software tool designed to aid small or large organizations in supporting telementoring programs (also called online mentoring or e‐mentoring programs). In this report, we review the research that inspired the design of the software, and survey the major components of the system, explaining the rationale behind our design choices. Since software designers cannot avoid making assumptions about an application’s users and its uses, our goal is to explain the assumptions that TMO makes about telementoring programs and telementoring relationships, and how these relate to our own research and field experiences. We aim to help potential users understand the range of programs that TMO might help manage and study in its current form, and to help the prospective designers of similar systems understand other design choices that might be made. We conclude by setting an agenda for future work, including both feature extensions for the software itself, and new research that could be carried out with it.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)109-131
Number of pages23
JournalMentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2005
Externally publishedYes

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