How to Get More Out of E-Learning Through Mentoring

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from Shawn Legere, our Director of Mentoring Services.

 

By Shawn Legere

One of the most important features of a SkillSoft

e-learning solution is the availability of mentoring services. Last year the SkillSoft mentors provided support to over 15,000 learners by answering questions, explaining confusing concepts in new ways, and providing valuable feedback. On-staff mentors provide support coverage for over 100 current professional certifications via online chats, email and daily certification emails.

 

Our mentors are committed to the concept of life-long learning. They know that a career as a SkillSoft mentor involves continual advances in technology, new certifications, and upgrading of skills. Frequently, they are some of the first in the IT industry to be invited to write beta exams and complete new certifications. Our mentors are not just certified in specific areas, they are genuinely interested in them, and it is that interest that keeps them focused on staying current.

 

As a team, the mentors hold over 1,000 combined certifications spanning across our IT certification, desktop skills training, and business skills courseware collections. When one of our learners encounters a difficult concept that they can’t quite grasp, mentoring services enables them to quickly tap into the extensive experience and collective body of knowledge of the entire mentoring team.

 

We recently surveyed our learning community to gain feedback on their mentoring experience. The survey results show that 89% of learners that utilized mentoring and subsequently took a certification exam passed their exam. In a follow-on question, 73% of respondents indicated that mentoring was “Essential” or “Very Helpful” to their exam success. The following is a sample of the comments we received from our open feedback section of the survey:

“The Mentoring Team was exceptional! They provided me with timely information and were always available to assist with any question I had.”

 

“Mentoring was excellent, the questions were relevant. Best thing about the questions is that it kept me thinking about the test daily, and when a question would catch me off-guard, it would point out weaknesses that I needed to study.”

 

“The mentor was swift to respond and provided detailed answers to the questions that I asked. He also provided clarity on some grey areas that I had concerning my required exam. The advice given was most helpful and appreciated.”

We are focused on helping our customers reach their learning and certification goals. The mentors log over 285,000 student interactions per year so we are always happy to hear from you! Mentoring is available from the “Ask My Mentor” link by clicking on the resources tab directly in the courseware. We also invite you to follow our Facebook page and Twitter channel to interact with both mentors and mentees in a community setting.

Comments

[Cathy Williams]

Hi,
Skillsoft has given a new dimension to E-Learning. This is a new thing for me that mentoring can promote E-learning.