Since the core of my activism plan (STEMLinks) is a web-based, virtual mentoring program, I decided to create an online lesson on best practices in virtual/web-based mentoring. Virtual mentoring is becoming increasingly popular since it is more flexible both in terms of time and place, unlike traditional face-to-face mentoring. I found quite a few virtual mentoring programs – MentorCloud, MentorNet, WitSon, CanTEEN, EngineerGirl. A common thread in the successful virtual mentoring programs was a well designed web platform that addressed privacy and security concerns while providing an easy to use communication and management platform. This would be an important point to keep in mind as I develop STEMLinks.

In working on creating the online lesson/how-to for the STEMLinks project, I unearthed a wealth of information on mentoring. Search strings like “STEM mentoring” and “mentor training” returned a number of websites that had great information on the types of mentoring, what makes a great mentor etc, and also how to design, create, operate and evaluate a successful mentoring program.  I found http://www.mentoring.org/ to be a very useful resource that I can draw on even after I complete this course.