Bmentoring: an experience for new students at distance university

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Orientation and reception plans emerge in universities as one of the facilitating measures in transit situations arising in this educative stage. A strategy recognized as a highly recommended measure to accompany the students in their first year at university, is peer mentoring. This article intends, on the one hand, to offer an overview of the pilot program of bMentorship carried out in the Associated Center of the UNED (Spanish Open University) in Seville started during the 2014/2015 academic year; and on the other hand. The methodoly have been supported through exploratory study , as well as quantitative, descriptive and inferential , in the dame way It implement cluster analysis techniques in order to detect either groups or profiles according to the difficulties encountered at the start of their degrees. The type of detected needs corroborates the data obtained in other similar researches (Callejo, 2001; García-Aretio 1994; Sánchez-Elvira, Fernández and Amor, 2006; Sánchez, Manzano-Soto, Martín-Cuadrado, Oliveros, Rísquez, and Suárez, 2009), although other needs related to digital skills preventing them from personal development and participation in the educational community stand out. The most used social media in bMentoría's for communication are WhatsApp and email, with a response rate of 56% and 40%, respectively. The resolution of important issues is performed in the context of the associated center, preferably. The bMentoría model shows the importance of combining formal and informal spaces, both face-to-face and virtual, in the development of the relationship between peers.