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Online Mentoring

The promise and pitfalls of an emerging approach

Online mentoring has taken off in recent years-often as an adjunct to face-to-face meetings, but sometimes as the primary means of connecting caring adults with youth. Many online programs are now in place, some of which are integrated into classrooms or after-school settings. Some focus on career or school outcomes, while others seek broader developmental goals.

Similarly, the format and duration of online programs can vary widely. Whereas one program might involve individual mentor/mentee matches that last for years, other programs pair groups of mentors with entire classrooms for specific, time-limited activities. Depending on the type of mentoring program, the mentors and mentees will have varying degrees of contact online. Some relationships might entail exchanging one e-mail per week; in others, mentors and mentees will spend several hours a week exchanging e-mails in order to review the mentees' class projects; or, a program might have mentors and mentees exchange e-mails as a bridge between face-to-face meetings.

Today, despite this expanding array of programs and venues (e.g., e-mail, chatrooms, instant messaging) and the general "buzz" surrounding the topic of online mentoring, precious little is known about its effectiveness. Much of the discussion around online mentoring has been speculative or based on research that involves very small samples and cross-sectional data. Few peer-reviewed articles have been published on the topic, and most of the information that is available through Web sites is limited to program descriptions. When success is measured, it is often in terms of the number of new matches that have been made, as opposed to their intensity, duration or effects on youth outcomes.

Despite this dearth of information, people tend to hold strong opinions about online mentoring, debating whether the Internet promotes or undercuts social connections and whether online relationships can ever be as influential as those sustained through face-to-face interaction. The goal of this month's column is to help bring some perspective to online mentoring-to explain what we currently know about the effectiveness, challenges and advantages of online mentoring.

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