Facilitating a Student-to-Student Mentorship (STSM) programme using Information Technology Tools

Abstract

It is the tradition of all learning processes to have a teacher, a guardian, and a learner. All these are basic
building blocks of learning as both a process and a tool to empower individuals. Generally, in life individuals
have always relied formally or informally on others to learn, grow, and gain experience in their respective fields.
But the learning process has always not been comfortable. It comprises of various activities such as mistakes,
failures, lessons, and eventually accomplishments. The concept of mentoring has been well researched across
various economic and academic sectors over many years. In South Africa (SA), different tertiary institutions
have implemented various mentorship programmes for diverse reasons such as improving pass rates, class
attendance and so on. Although the concept of mentoring has a long tradition in higher learning institutions
(HLI); it is still not widely implemented, particularly within SA HLI. This is also evident by a lack of research
output on this topic at various academic forums, conferences, and seminars in SA. It has also been widely
reported that the key reason for high drop-out rates at HLI in SA, is poor academic performance among other
reasons. The main objective of this paper is to propose a STSM programme that can be applied in the faculty of
ICT at Tshwane University of Technology to improve learners’ pass rates, participation, class attendance, and
above all improve learners’ confidence in their studies thus growing and gaining skills that will enable them to
be employable in the near future. In this paper, we further present IT tools such as online mentorship system that can be used in facilitating the STSM programme. The tools are meant to be used for activities such as booking a mentor, tracking learners’ progress, pass rates, virtual mentoring, etc.

Full text

International conference on Science &
Technology: Applications in Industry
& Education (2008)
FACILITATING A STUDENT-TO-STUDENT MENTORSHIP (STSM)
PROGRAMME USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOOLS
1Wonga Ntshinga, 2Jabu Mtsweni, 3Ishmael Makitla
1 & 2 Faculty of Information and Comunications Technology, Tshwane University of Technolgy, Private Bag X680, Pretoria, South Africa.
3 Ilab-Systems, 104 Lake View Gardens, Pretoria.
e-mail: 1NtshingaW@tut.ac.za, 2 MtsweniJ@tut.ac.za, 3 Ishmael.Makitla@za.g4s.com
Keywords: mentoring, mentor, mentee, STSM, TAMP
Abstract. It is the tradition of all learning processes to have a teacher, a guardian, and a
learner. All these are basic building blocks of learning as both a process and a tool to
empower individuals. Generally, in life individuals have always relied formally or informally
on others to learn, grow, and gain experience in their respective fields. But the learning
process has always not been comfortable. It comprises of various activities such as mistakes,
failures, lessons, and eventually accomplishments. The concept of mentoring has been well
researched across various economic and academic sectors over many years. In South Africa
(SA), different tertiary institutions have implemented various mentorship programmes for
diverse reasons such as improving pass rates, class attendance and so on. Although the
concept of mentoring has a long tradition in higher learning institutions (HLI); it is still not
widely implemented, particularly within SA HLI. This is also evident by a lack of research
output on this topic at various academic forums, conferences, and seminars in SA. It has also
been widely reported that the key reason for high drop-out rates at HLI in SA, is poor
academic performance among other reasons. The main objective of this paper is to propose a
STSM programme that can be applied in the faculty of ICT at Tshwane University of
Technology to improve learners’ pass rates, participation, class attendance, and above all
improve learners’ confidence in their studies thus growing and gaining skills that will enable
them to be employable in the near future. In this paper, we further present IT tools such as
online mentorship system that can be used in facilitating the STSM programme. The tools are
meant to be used for activities such as booking a mentor, tracking learners’ progress, pass
rates, virtual mentoring, etc.
1 Introduction
The concept of mentorship has been well researched across various economic and academic sectors over
many years. According to Garvey (2007), mentoring can simply be defined as a relationship between two
individuals, where one is a mentor counselling a mentee. The supportive relationship encompasses the
sharing of knowledge, skills, tips, and experiences. The main role of a mentor in a mentorship process is
to supplement and support the learning experience of a mentee, which we refer to as a learner.
In South Africa (SA), different tertiary institutions have implemented various mentorship programmes
for diverse reasons such as improving pass rates, class attendance, and so on. The University of
KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), University of Cape Town (UCT), and Tshwane University of Technology
(TUT) are some of the Higher Learning Institutions (HLI) that have mentorship programmes in some of
their academic departments. At TUT, a mentorship programme called Technical Application Mentorship
Programme (TAMP) has been running since 2004 within the Enterprise Application Development (EAD)
department (Ntshinga & Makitla, 2008). The TAMP programme mainly focuses on mentoring learners
within the programming domain. Apart from the TAMP programme; no other mentorship programmes
exist within the faculty of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at TUT, in particular for
the problem subjects such as digital systems, electronics, mathematics, and digital process control just to
mention a few. An opinion that: “students are not well prepared from school” still come up as one of the
excuses for poor results and student lack of understanding for different concepts such as programming,
electronics, mathematics, etc. Regardless of various reasons that contribute to poor pass rates; we believe
that mentorship has the potential to improve learners’ skills, knowledge, and confidence; particularly
when it comes to learning new concepts. In this study, we aim to propose a Student-to-Student
Mentorship Programme (STSM), mainly for the emerging faculty of ICT at the Soshanguve Campus.

2 Problem statement
The learning process is always not comfortable. It comprises of a lot of activities such as mistakes,
failures, tears, time, and eventually accomplishments. Generally, in life individuals have always relied
formally or informally on others to learn, grow, and gain experience in their respective field. It is very
rare to come across any person who has succeeded in a particular field without being directly or
indirectly mentored. Examples of successful people who have been mentored include Martin Luther
King Jr mentored by Benjamin Mays; and Richard Branson mentored by Freddie Laker; even Napoleon
Hill was mentored.
It has been widely reported that the key reason for high drop-out rates at HLI in SA is poor academic
performance (Naidoo, 2008) among other reasons. Pass rates for technical subjects such as programming
have been poor over the past few years across various HLI. As stated above, reasons such as poorly
prepared matriculation candidates have been mentioned as reasons for poor academic performance by
learners, particularly at HLI.
The main objective of this paper is to propose a STSM programme that can be applied at various ICT
departments within TUT to improve learners’ pass rates, participation, class attendance, and above all
improve learners’ confidence in their studies; thus enabling them to grow and gain skills that will enable
them to be employable in the near future (see Figure 1 below).
There has always been learners who had a better grasp of subject contents than others and have always
assisted out of understanding and pure will; STSM programme aims to formalize this relationship.
This mission is inline with the national if not global call for addressing the issue of lack of skilled
graduates, on the same breath STSM will be dedicated to ensuring that learners who complete their
studies will enter the world of technology knowing what they are able to do and also the quality of that
effort.
Figure 1. STSM Flow chart.

3 Literature review
In this section we elaborate on the contextual background of mentoring, by focusing on aspects such as
what is mentoring and what are the benefits of having a mentorship programme. In this section we will
also briefly look into the living laboratory concept as the mentorship programme proposed in this study
is intended to be implemented and presented using the living lab approach. The Student-to-Student
Mentorship (STSM) programme is explained in detail in section four (4) including the upcoming policies
that will govern this programme and information technology tools that can be used to facilitate the
operation of this programme. We will also explain the duties and the rewards for the mentors and the
mentees, who would form part of the team of the proposed programme.
3.1 Mentorship
The purpose of mentorship is to supplement, support, and improve the learning experience of learners.
Since mentorship is a relationship between individuals; it requires dedication, trust, physical, and
emotional participation. It further involves various aspects such as listening, supporting, questioning, and
supervising. But it is not about being a psychologist or a disciplinarian. As it is widely known, mentoring
has been successful in:
• Helping individuals to choose appropriate careers.
• Helping learners to improve their grades and develop lacking skills
• Helping individuals in setting and achieving their goals
• Encouraging positive behaviour and so on
In a mentorship process, there is always a mentor and a mentee (learner) and the mentor has different
roles to those of a mentee. According to Wikepedia (2008), a mentor is a trusted friend, counsellor, or
teacher; usually a more experienced person sharing his/her experiences with a less experienced person, in
this case a mentee.
3.1.1 Benefits of the mentorship programme
There are several benefits that can be acquired by learners who are involved in a mentorship process.
Some of the benefits are listed below:
• Increase experience
• Improve communication skills
• Be involved in community service
• Enhances chances of being employed
• Broaden networks, thus increase your contacts
3.2 Living laboratory approach
Helsinki Lab (2007) defines a living laboratory as an approach for building the future innovation
environment in which real-life driven innovation and research is a normal technique for developing new
products, services, and social infrastructure. The collaboration approach enables a development of useful
and effective products and technologies. “A Living Lab takes advantage of creative talent, socio-cultural
diversity, and the unpredictability of inventiveness and imagination of end-users” (Helsinki Lab, 2007).
Applying the Living Lab approach for mentoring peers, experiences can be gained and shared among
learners as students with skills and better understanding in a certain fields can share their knowledge with
others in order to empower and create a better future for all. Using this approach, students from different
universities can also collaborate to create better mentorship programmes that will enable tertiary
institutions to produce mentored and industry-prepared graduates. The living lab approach is unique in a
sense that educators can also become part of the mentoring process, whereby they can also mentor the
student mentors where necessary. This will in turn improve the way mentees are being mentored by their
peers. The following SIG groups are suggested under this living lab (SIG is a formal or informal group
of individuals who share similar interests in certain topics or fields):

Programming SIG (these can further be broken down into specific languages such as C++, C#, Java, etc);
Networking SIG (also can be broken into Wireless, LAN, Bluetooth, etc.);
Open Source SIG (this group will deal with running and evaluating open source operating systems and
related software programs: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Knoppix, Red Hat, OpenOffice, etc);
Robotics SIG (this can be divided further into device-specific groups such as the PIC16F group, 8031
chips, Intel Processors-specific groups, Artificial Intelligence groups, Digital Systems engineering
groups, etc.);
Business Intelligence SIG (this group will focus on issues such as ITIL, IT for Business, Information
Systems and so forth – they focus on business side of IT, including technical support, end-user support,
etc).
To make sense of the SIG’s value in learners performance, it is necessary for the SIG to run some sort of
a semester projects bringing all members to work on a specific project and present it during open day or
expo events – regular workshops will also have to be organized – guest speakers from either other
universities or companies will also contribute a lot to these SIG’s ratings. Each SIG can then be expected
to produce a report every semester mention all the events it undertook, any projects or conferences they
were involved in. Most importantly is the element of scientific research so that SIG’s can produce articles
for accredited journals which will also promote SIG’s public image.
4 STSM programme
STSM is a programme whereby learners who have experience and are more knowledgeable in certain
subjects are drawn-in to mentor learners (mentees) who are struggling and/or need extra support and
guidance in those subjects. The mentor will be responsible for mentoring one mentee per session to
ensure that mentee’s learning process is monitored effectively. Mentors would be recruited through a
rigorous screening process and they would be introduced to mentoring basics by the Student
Development and Support Directorate (SDSD). Mentors would be recruited as from their second
semester at the university and will be used as mentors, if suitable, throughout their studies at TUT. The
mentoring method that will be mainly utilized would be a face-to-face approach, where a mentor and a
mentee would meet on weekly basis to attend to the academic needs of a mentee. E-mentoring would
also be used in order to accelerate the process of mentoring where possible and where meeting face-to-
face seem to be a challenge. E-mentoring can be explained as a process where a mentee and a mentor
communicate via email in order to solve certain problems or answer brief questions that a mentee might
be having. E-mentoring would be encouraged in a situation where the relationship between a mentor and
mentee has already developed. E-mentoring or virtual mentoring can also be applied where a mentor who
was part of the programme is now employed and wishes to continue with mentoring upcoming mentees
while in industry. STSM will also give best tips to learners - e.g. e-mail etiquettes. Many organizations
and companies, in our days, turn down applicants because they lack mentoring experience. STSM will
also serve to give an opportunity to those that want to give back to the community since the institution
would have given so much to them.
STSM would offer a great deal of benefit to any organization (academic institutions, corporations,
government labs, and agencies) in marketing their products: If an organization is interested, STSM will
ask the organization to offer anything of value to the ICT learners, these may include among other things;
USB-drives, software and licenses, invitations to product launches, PCs and accessories. Any other
contribution in any form is welcomed, as long as it would contribute to the progress of the learners and
the programme.
4.1 Student development and support directorate (SDSD)
The Student Development and Support (SDS) Directorate coaches our mentors every semester on the
following modules:
• mentor guidelines;
• mentoring with emotional intelligence;
• career mentoring;
• academic mentoring & training;
• mentoring in a learning community;
After a year of service mentors are awarded an SDS Merit Certificate.

4.2 Tool s
This section lists some of the tools that can be used in facilitating the STSM programme such as booking
a mentor, tracking mentee’s progress, monitoring subject pass rates, online tools such as forums and chat
programmes for virtual mentoring. Online booking system (current TAMP booking system): this is a tool
that can be used to allow a mentee to book a mentor for a particular session.
According to Ntshinga & Makitla (2008), the TAMP website allows learners to book for a mentor online.
Moreover learners can participate in activities such as mentors evaluation, surveys, competitions, brain
teasers, workshops, joining computer societies, or downloading resources like TAMP magazine, articles,
general news, and forums. The use of technology would give the programme the advantage of having a
self-service setting with learners being able to diarise mentorship sessions, provide feedback, and also to
plan their activities effectively.
The website can also be used to analyze topics such as those listed below:
• What is the pass rate per semester?
• Which topic/module/subject is booked most by mentees?
• Which mentor is booked most frequently?
• Which mentor is most highly rated by mentees?
• How many bookings occur per semester?
• What is the overall pass rate of students utilizing the mentorship programme?
There are of course numerous disadvantages in using such a tool (i.e. website). For example, website not
accessible (see email below from a mentor to the chairman of TAMP below) and also loss of data (see e-
mail below from the webmaster of TAMP):
Hey, Mr. Chairman!
I am having TROUBLE accessing the TAMP website. Is there a problem that side?
I could register to the forum this morning, but since then I haven't been able to browse the
website...
Regards,
Diana PHOLO
The developer has indicated that the database was corrupted during the backup process. I was
under the impression that he did go to you to explain the situation since he needs to take
responsibility for his actions. He did indicate he was a few times at your office but you were not
available. He also indicated that he was willing to do the data capturing for the data that was
lost.
The back process will be looked at to prevent this from happening again.
Aubrey
Moodle (e-Learning system): this is an open source tool that can be used as a management tool for the
whole STSM programme as it has all the features that are needed to manage a course and can be
modified to incorporate new features such as tracking mentee’s progress, uploading sample exercises,
uploading of progress and feedback reports by mentors, sharing of testimonies by mentees who are ready
to become mentors, and many more. It also has a forum and a chat feature.
4.3 Duties and rewarding mentors
Since mentors recruited into the programme would be expected to have some expertise in certain subjects
for example: programming, mathematics, or electronics; their main duties would not be about completing
exercises and homework for mentees, but will include the following tasks:
• Guiding and supporting a mentee on a specific subject or topic
• Build mentee’s confidence and participation and encourage academic development
• Following up on a mentee (checking if concepts are being grasped and understood)
• Advising a mentee on aspects such as study methods, subject choices, and encountered
challenges
• Writing weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports.
• Improving the mentorship programme and other ad-hoc mentoring tasks.

Mentors participation in the programme should purely be on voluntary basis and where possible mentors
should be rewarded as follows:
• Awarding of certificates signed by the Dean and the Vice Chancellor
• Attending relevant seminars, workshops, conferences, and expos on TUT expense
• Get some discounts on books and/or class fees
• Be considered for part-time lecturing or student assistance positions
TAMP pays its mentors on hourly basis, the accumulative sum is paid out to mentors at the end of each
semester of service, the rates are calculated based on mentor’s year of study. Mentors submit their claim
forms monthly. TAMP’s current operational cost; for running the programme, and paying mentors is as
illustrated in table 1 below: Table 1. TAMP operation costs
Year Semester Amount in
R Comment
2003 2 Mentors were not paid. Programme was on
voluntary basis
2004 1 R 3,830.00
2004 2 ? Data lost – hard drive failure
2005 1 R 8,273.00
2005 2 R 9,896.50
2006 1 R 5,518.50
2006 2 R 8,554.00
2007 1 R 8,354.75
2007 2 R 8,354.75
2008 1 R 16,361.20
4.4 STSM policy
In recognition of the importance of rules and regulations, the STSM programme would need a proper
mentorship policy which governs the roles and tasks of each participating learner. The policy will further
identify the code of conduct, the processes involved, and the procedures employed in dealing with issues
within the programme. The policy should be a binding contract for all stakeholders participating in the
STSM mentorship programme.
5 Conclusion
It is the tradition of all learning processes to have a teacher, a guardian, and a learner. All these are basic
building blocks of learning as both a process and a tool to empower individuals. Matured fields such as
scientific and mathematical studies have shown this without doubts with the likes of Isaac Newton,
Albert Einstein, Galileo Galilee and many others. The proposed STSM programme aims to formalize the
previously informal or indirect relationship where mentoring will only take place passively without any
binding between a guardian and a mentee and without any measure of control or monitoring.
Tools such as World Wide Web (WWW) and other computer related utilities (e.g. TAMP website) come
in handy to further enhance the process of mentorship, bridging the gap between skilled, experienced,
well-knowledgeable individuals, and those that can benefit from these collective qualities when shared.
STSM will maintain the tradition of mentoring whilst formalizing its relations amongst its parties,
incorporating the culture of mentorship into organizations, in this way it will be seen that the full
potential of mentorship can be realised.
6 References
GARVEY, B. 2007. The developments in mentoring research. Sage Journal
Online.
HELSINKI LAB. 2007. What is a Living Lab? [Online].

Available from: http://www.helsinkilivinglab.fi/node/162
[Accessed: 2008/06/25]
NAIDOO, S. 2008. Highdrop-out rate due to poverty. TheTimes, Feb. 24. Available from:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=712716.
[Accessed: 2008/06/06]
NTSHINGA, W.L & MAKITLA, I.M. 2008. (Virtual) mentorship as a tool to improve learner success in Higher Education.
(Paper to be read at the FYE 2008 Stellenbosch University Conference, Cape Town). Unpublished.
WIKIPEDIA. 2008. Mentor. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor
[Accessed: 2008/06/05]