WesternOnline Mentor Role
Mentors serve, in collaboration with WesternOnline’s instructional design team, as consultation partners for faculty peers to assist with navigating institutional processes for proposing and gaining approval of online programs and courses. Mentors participate in thoughtful engagement with the WesternOnline team in online teaching and learning best practices. Duties may include consulting with peers, sharing experiences with and strategies for online teaching; planning, facilitating, and/or delivering training, workshops, and discussions; and outreach to faculty colleagues, partnering and collaborating with WesternOnline staff to build and foster the continuation of the mentor role.
Mentor Goals
- Engage with peers in conversations about online teaching and learning
- Participate and design professional development opportunities
- Develop, create, and share exemplars that align with WesternOnline “Indicators”
- Provide feedback and collaborate with WesternOnline team to help support online teaching and learning efforts
Mentor Objectives
- Collaboratively build a WesternOnline faculty mentor role
- Provide consultations to faculty proposing online course/programs
- Implement WesternOnline Indicators as a guide for online course design
- Evaluate online course design using WesternOnline Indicators
- Serve as a peer collaborator with new or existing online faculty to advance quality online courses
- Perform outreach duties to expand interest from potential faculty colleagues to advance online teaching and learning efforts
- Deliver professional development sessions and trainings in areas of interest
- Develop and curate exemplars of online course design elements, including content and examples
- Collaborate with WesternOnline instructional design team on delivery and creation of activities related to online teaching and learning best practices
Mentor Term-Based Hours
- Each mentor receives $1,000 per academic term for three terms (Fall, Winter, and Spring) for a total of $3,000.
- Payment is based on $50 an hour for a total of 20 hours per academic term.
Work Products
- Mentors will create exemplary course materials, activities, and strategies that will be shared publicly and institutionally with other faculty colleagues and WesternOnline support staff through our web based presence, presentations, and other platforms not listed here.