Software Development for E-Mentoring

Thursday, December 14, 2006 Posted by Cecilia Loureiro-Koechlin 2 comments

To develop software for human systems (as opposed to machines, e.g. software to control a production line) one has to understand the nature of those human systems. Unlike machines, which behave predictably, are stable and unambiguous, people are unpredictable, unstable, ambiguous, inconsistent, moody and different (you expect two Nokia 73 cellphones look and behave the same, however even twin brothers will have different personalities). These human characteristics shape organisational environments where you find a diversity of people working under the same roof. This is also true for social software - the kind of software that facilitates social interactions over the internet, for example online communities like Hi5. Thousands if not millions of people will use such application and interact with each other in unimaginable ways.

As I mentioned in my previous post I am working on designing the structure of an online community software (I am not programming the software though. I am trying to do my best at customising the tools that I was given). So I have a task of designing software for a human process called e-mentoring. To do this I have been reading about e-mentoring (very little yet). Why? Because I need to understand what people DO and NEED to do E-mentoring.

What I have found is that e-mentors and mentees need to perform the following activities:

  • Communicate with each other
  • Collaborate - work on something together
  • Build a relationship between them - empathise?
  • Networking - look beyond the mentor-mentee relationship, build a community of practice?


From the above I gather that my job - and the job of a software developer who wants to design software for e-mentoring or similar activities - is to provide tools that allow people to perform those activities. In addition I think that the software should include features that encourage people to participate online and provide confidentiality, security and works!.

In my nice diagram (I use MS Visio by the way :P) I am showing a schema of the above. My interest of course is on the right hand side of this diagram. However, it is impossible to put software development in a bubble, without considering the system which is going to use the software. For developers this implies an understanding of the human and social aspects of the e-mentoring process (different from the technical aspects); and of course the ability to transform this understanding in working software. You will know that your online application has been a success if: (1) Mentors and Mentees were able to connect and achieve the mentoring goals (2) A community of practice is created from these interactions ???



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E-mentoring and Online Communities

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 Posted by Cecilia Loureiro-Koechlin 4 comments

What is e-mentoring?

Mentoring is a process where an experienced individual helps another less experienced individual to identify and achieve goals. For example within an organisational environment you can have a manager helping a subordinate to improve his/her professional skills. Mentoring provides mentees with personal growth and development; and mentors with the experience of helping someone while performing their jobs. E-mentoring is doing this but over CMC (computer mediated communication). Maybe without mentor and mentee meeting in person! Cool!

To perform e-mentoring we need a “place” for people to meet online, perhaps we need an online community. An online community is a space where members can communicate and collaborate. In e-mentoring terms this means that participants can:

  • (Communicate) Exchange ideas - problems - give advice - provide information
  • (Collaborate) Do things online - for example: mentors helping mentees with writing their CVs

I am working in a research project that will provide e-mentoring support to unemployed women. They will be e-mentored by other more experienced women who are currently working at a senior management level. I am the geek member of the team :-) Among other things, I am in charge of designing the structure of an online community software to fit our e-mentoring needs. It is a web based application provided by a third party. I was given administrative rights, woooooohahaha. The application allows customisation of menu, creation of user accounts, roles for users, creation of resource (files) folders, discussion boards, chat rooms and questionnaires.

Because this is a research project I have to be very conscious about the software features I am choosing. I need to justify the use of each option in the software and monitor its use (for reporting purposes). I am also aware that I have to be flexible because things may need to be changed during the duration of the e-mentoring process. Therefore, I will have to check the use of the online community, respond to user feedbacks as quickly as possible and amend the application if possible.

Now, I know there is a contradiction between doing e-mentoring and doing it in an online community. E-mentoring is mostly a pair activity, it is private and confidential: an interaction between mentor and mentee. An online community is a place where you expect more than 2 people (hence the term community) to interact or socialise in an environment to which all members have access. So interactions are public to online members.

How do you reconcile e-mentoring with online communities?

Well, I think e-mentoring has two aspects. One is the one I mentioned above: pair meetings. The other one is community support. By community support I mean a group of people (other mentors and other mentees) who are going through similar experiences and who can gain from sharing their experiences with their peers. For example, mentors can receive guidance from more experienced mentors; mentors can discuss common problems in a chat room, etc. This can facilitate the creation and development of communities of practice in different fields of expertise.

From what I have mentioned, my approach to designing the structure of this e-mentoring site is, first to provide separate discussion areas for both mentors and mentees (community support) and a common area for private pair meeting.

Also, there are some tools that could be used to encourage people participate in the community. For example to provide online material on e-mentoring literature to guide mentors, to assign mentors and mentees some online tasks they can do together to encourage pair meetings, and to keep them informed of the online interactions by other members of the community via “digest” e-mails (summaries). I think these features will encourage people to go into the online community and participate.

If this works the online community will be a success. However this does not mean that the e-mentoring will work. For e-mentoring to work I think, we need the online community to work of course, but also, we need the pair to empathise: like each other and work together; and finally we need the mentee’s goal to be achieved or at least we need a mentor and mentee to be happy with the work done.

Can e-mentoring work if the online community doesn’t work? It could. Maybe if pairs choose a separate online media to meet (like MSN), but that has to be done on mutual agreement, and pairs will miss all the online support given by the community.

Implications for Software Development? A lot, but I will discuss them on a separate post.

I’m off.

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