If you decide to pursue online mentoring, rather than meet face-to-face or via video meetings, here are some ideas to help you make the most of it. e-Mentoring has grown in popularity as advances in social media and online communication have given us increasing ability to move the work of mentors into the virtual world, offering flexibility.

Some of the advantages are:-

• It provides built-in reflection time, so mentors have more time to think about good questions and mentees have more time to consider answers.
• Greater reflection time also generates higher creativity.
• It allows mentors to see patterns of expression and language, which reveal issues that may be missed in vocal exchange.
• There is a record of each conversation, so it’s possible to go back to what has been said in previous mentoring conversations. Pupils have stressed how beneficial they find this.
• People tend to be more open and less aware of power differentials in written learning exchanges.
• Mentoring can happen at the time it is most needed, rather than having to wait for a scheduled meeting.
• Where appropriate, a written conversation can be broken into several small chunks, spread out over time – so not creating a significant disruption to either party’s day.
• Mentor and mentee can be in different time zones yet hold an (asynchronous) conversation at times convenient to them.

Some of the disadvantages are:-

• There can be a loss of spontaneity.
• The ‘colour’ of spoken conversation (tone, emphasis, emotion etc) is less obvious – so it is easier to misinterpret what has been said.
• People tend to read written statements as more critical than intended.

Mentoring by messages

Useful guidelines here include:-

• Agree clear protocols. For example, avoid using capitals, unless you want to shout.
• Mentees should give enough detail of the situation for the mentor to understand and ask pertinent questions, but not so much that they drown in detail.
• Whether and how to share documentation.
• Agree a maximum frequency of email and a maximum response time.
• Make good use of the reflection time by creating a draft, then letting it percolate for half-an-hour or more, before sending.
• As in a face-to-face relationship, take time at the beginning to get to know each other. For example, exchange messages about your learning journey, your passions, your previous experience of mentoring etc.
• Check the meaning and words and phrases, to ensure that you have understood each other’s intent.
• Just as in face-to-face mentoring, remember to establish a measure of rapport at the beginning of each virtual mentoring session. Demonstrate an interest in each other as people, rather than just in the issue the mentee brings.

Written mentoring conversations need structure just as much as face-to-face ones. Useful questions in creating structure include:-

• What is the issue you’d like to explore?
• Why is it important to you? Why now?
• What do you genuinely know? What do you think you know? What do you feel?
• What level/kind of resolution are you looking for? (Or do you perhaps just want to examine the issue from other perspectives?)
• Review and recap more frequently than you might with face-to-face mentoring, to ensure that you are both on the same wavelength. Ask the mentee to reflect on whether their perception of the issue, which they have brought for discussion, has now changed.

As with face-to-face mentoring, aim to review the relationship once every few exchanges, to establish what you could each do to make it even more effective.