E-mentoring and its relevance for competency-based education for students with disabilities: research from the GSAA BreakThru model
Background
Communication and learning technologies to enable mentoring for students are important topics for online courses and competency-based education approaches. However, research results have been limited. The Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA) is a research project of the US National Science Foundation’s Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program. It is a collaborative RDE Alliance between the University of Georgia (UGA) and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Launched in 2010, GSAA seeks to enhance achievement of people with disabilities in STEM education and careers.
Conclusions
Preliminary results from BreakThru can help inform course designers to maximize mentor/faculty effectiveness with students. Project results indicate both an improvement of student persistence and an improved skill in navigating critical transition points to employment.
