Remote Security Mentor

What exactly is 'mentored-learning' anyway? There are many different types of online education courses. They range from downloadable self-paced courses to real-time, instructor-led courses. And while most people can understand each end of this spectrum, it is in the middle ground where most of the confusion lies.

The middle ground is loosely called 'mentored-learning'. Today, over 66% of online educational institutions offer some form of mentored-learning. Unfortunately, nobody knows what it means. 'Mentored-learning' can mean anything from sending a student a couple of emails to diligently monitoring a student's progress twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. For the prospective student, trying to understand what you're getting is a formidable task.

The rest of this article describes what we mean by mentored-learning. It also provides you with some questions that you can ask eLearning companies to help you understand what they mean by mentored-learning.

Our idea of mentored-learning
In our model, mentored-learning plays a key role in the overall learning experience. We couple self-paced reading materials and practical assignments with several kinds of communications such as student-to-instructor email, student-to-student email, real-time classroom chat, and bulletin board discussion groups. This means that throughout the course, students are performing one of four operations:

1) Reading through the course materials
In our courses, students spend their time reading and interacting with the course content. This means reading though a series of lesson modules and taking quizzes to prepare themselves for the practical assignments. This is very much like traditional studying. For this, students typically choose to use the CD-ROM that they receive so that they don't tie up their phone line or have to endure Internet delays (though they are welcome to use the online version if they wish).

2) Completing the assignments
Throughout their studies, students work with course software, researching, creating, assembling and submitting assignments. This will be a combination of resources on their machine and from the server.

3) Working with other students
For the duration of the course, students will work with other students via email, via chat and via discussion groups to either discuss topics or complete group assignments.

4) Being mentored by the instructor
The phrase 'instructor-mentored' means students are being monitored and guided through these activities by a course instructor, course markers and/or visiting experts. It has three linked forms.

Email exchanges: Either instructors or students can initiate Email exchanges. Success is measured by the speed of the response. We try for 'inside 24' - response times of less than 24 hours. Instructors respond at best speed, often within minutes, and we notify students of the times during the day when they can expect more immediate responses. Circumstances dictate that there may be some delays, but these do not exceed 48 hours. In return, we expect students to check their email and to participate in course activities at regular intervals.

Discussion groups: Discussion groups in which students take leadership on specific topics of their experience or issues of importance to them in their studies. Here too our instructors are involved, comment, support and link users. We provide answers, but we also listen and promote student-based initiatives, ideas and models.

Marking: We mark assignments closely, electronically, with comments linked inside the student materials themselves so readers see exactly where work can be improved, corrected and - most important - how this can be achieved. The comments deal directly with the work at each stage and then link the stages together in summary comments, with a grade, at the conclusion of the assignment. That is mentored-learning.

So how do eLearning companies compare?
Good question. Not all eLearning companies share our view of 'mentored learning'. So when it comes to your education, you'll want to make sure that you know what you're buying.