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TLO
15,4 Using e-mentoring to sustain
distance training and education
Daniel James Homitz
326 The Engle Group, Hyattsville, Maryland, USA, and
Zane L. Berge
UMBC, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine e-mentoring as a way to sustain distance training
and education.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a framework for sustaining distance
training and education by adding e-mentoring (mentoring over the internet). It also explores the role of
mentors, the benefits of the programs to the mentor and the sponsoring organizations, and ways of
overcoming challenges faced by e-mentoring in distance training and education.
Findings – One effective and cost-effective way to monitor and improve the effectiveness of training
and education in the workplace is to involve expert peers, subject matter experts, and managers in a
mentoring or coaching capacity.
Originality/value – The article shows a cost-effective way to monitor and improve the effectiveness
of training and education in the workplace.
Keywords Mentoring, Distance learning, Training, Education
Paper type Research paper

The Learning Organization
Vol. 15 No. 4, 2008
pp. 326-335
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0969-6474
DOI 10.1108/09696470810879574
In addition to task-specific skills, workers need a variety of critical thinking, social, and
technical skills in order to get the job done and to continue to advance their careers
(Kerka, 1998; Watt, 2004). Traditionally, employees learned these skills during
on-the-job training or in formal, classroom settings. However, in the global marketplace
of international and multinational corporations, coworkers are often in different zip
codes and time zones or even on different continents. Centralized classroom based
training is not always practical, economical, or desired.
Over the last ten to 15 years, many organizations have moved some or all of their
training programs out of the classroom and into computer-based offline and online
formats for distance education. While there have been some success stories, many
organizations find it difficult to conduct and sustain the distance training and
education efforts. The root causes for the problems encountered by the training
organizations are many, but usually can be boiled down to the failure to meet the
peripheral learning needs of the students such as overcoming technical roadblocks and
obtaining answers to questions only marginally related to or outside the specific course
subject matter. As institutional decision-makers begin to receive negative feedback
about the courses due to these and other issues and they start to question the
effectiveness of these programs, they begin to look for new and different ways to help
students deal with problems related to computer-based and internet learning.
A growing number of corporations and businesses are discovering that mentoring
and e-mentoring are a cost-effective way to improve the effectiveness of distance
training and education even while cutting training staff and training budgets (Jossi,
1997). They realize that even though distance training and education programs can be E-mentoring
a good way to address the work-specific skills, there is not enough time for the
instructors to meet all of the other needs of the students above and beyond their
traditional instructional duties. More and more these corporations and businesses are
turning to mentoring to address the cognitive, interpersonal, and technological needs of
the employees participating in the distance education program. e-mentoring is a
natural evolution of this process in the digital era. 327
In this paper, mentoring or e-mentoring are used interchangeably since most of
what is said pertains regardless of delivery mode. An e-mentor:
[. . .] is not recognized as a tutor or teacher but someone who provides guidance or counsel.
Mentoring is used as an invaluable tool for developing a personal investment and is a
cost-effective way for delivering outcomes and achieving organizational growth (Blue, 2002,
para. 4).
Mentoring should not be confused with training and functions more like coaching than
training (Gregg, 1999).
While this article focuses on the benefits of mentoring, clearly mentoring is not a
panacea. There are, of course, ineffective mentors and coaches; in fact, it can go beyond
ineffectiveness to being harmful to the organization and its people. Generally, when that
happens, it is usually the case that the mentors or coaches use diagnostic instruments or
solutions that they not capable of correctly using, or in some other way overstep their
abilities (Bachkirova and Cox, 2005; Berglas, 2002; Ehrich and Hansford, 1999).

Increasing numbers of non-traditional learners

As individuals are made more responsible for their own learning and career development
and find they do not have the time to dedicate to classroom learning, they are turning to
forms of education other than public and private universities. Corporate universities are
blossoming because they are able to narrow their focus to industry-specific skills and
inductions to corporate culture in a stark shift away from the general baccalaureate
degree requirements of traditional universities. Even when in partnership with an
established academic university, the corporate education programs are often geared
toward thousands or tens of thousands of corporate employees and aim to teach specific
sets and subsets of skills that employees can immediately put to use. Similarly, the
certification movement by companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Novell support
programs that confer thousands of certifications every year.
Moreover, corporations and businesses want employees to complete corporate
university programs or want employees to get these certifications because they
indicate that the person has specific knowledge in a specific area. This rapid explosion
in the number of non-traditional learners is changing education programs around the
globe as fewer training professionals are expected to train larger numbers of adult
learners. To manage these large numbers of students and new, alternative forms of
distance training and education that are necessary to accommodate these learners,
many organizations are instituting mentoring programs.

E-mentoring as one means of sustaining distance training and education

Many proponents of online education programs have investigated the ways to sustain
distance training and education. Among other factors, it is clear that by getting early
TLO support from upper management and decision-makers to champion the program,
15,4 adopting the right technologies at the right time at the right cost, actively marketing
the learning program, remaining flexible and encouraging truthful discussion of the
initiative, and evaluating the effectiveness of the ongoing training, any organization
can sustain the interest in and the success of the courses. Additionally, it is important
that key players such as upper management participate in and model successful
328 distance training and education experiences, create partnerships with the training
department to ensure realistic planning and follow through, and take the lead by
communicating frequently and positively with the learning community about the
program (Gold, 2003; Resource Bridge, 2005). It is not enough to simply buy or license
the technology, design the instruction, provide access, conduct the training, and
continue with business as usual:
The development of an organizational philosophy that supports technology, lifelong learning
and change can lay the foundation for supporting distance training (Berge and Kendrick,
2005).
Recent history has shown, however, that having the technology available and the
cultural impetus for participating in distance training and education classes as a strong
foundation is not a complete training and education solution as there can be many
barriers to these types of enterprises. Even in programs that address all the factors
listed above, difficulties with the instructor or flow of the class, poor learner
motivation, the perception that there is just not time for study, and the potential lack of
social interaction in the online courses can contribute to the possible failure
(Muilenburg and Berge, 2005).
If the classes are not delivered effectively, there is often a high drop out rate or rate
of incompletion that could be due to many reasons including insufficient feedback from
the instructor, technical difficulties, and/or poor course design (McKenzie et al., 2006;
Muirhead and Betz, 2002; Pickar and Wheatley, 2001). When virtual or online courses
are offered on a learning management system, CD ROM, online tutorial, or web based
training module, an organization can run the risk that participants that struggle with
the technology or feel that they are all alone in the learning effort do not enjoy the
experience, may not complete the course or courses, and may not register again in the
future (Robert, 2005).
While there have been many suggestions on how to overcome these and other
barriers, mentoring is being used by more organizations as an effective way to mitigate
many or all of these potential problems. While mentoring may include actual
instruction, it supports much of what is known about learning, including the socially
constructed nature of learning and the importance of situated learning (Kerka, 1998).

The role of e-mentors in distance training and education

A mentor serves as a trusted counselor or teacher, especially in work settings, and
mentoring is seen by many as comparable to leadership, managing, apprenticing, and
coaching (Buche, 2008; Johnson et al., 1999). There are many ways that mentors can
fulfill these different roles in a distance training and education setting. As leaders they
can influence their protégés in an attempt to structure the activities of a learning
program and the relationships between individuals and groups within it. As managers,
they can administer, control, and maintain the status quo or they can be instruments of
change, depending on the learning situation. As masters to the apprentices, they can E-mentoring
create a formal or informal contractual relationship during which time they help the
apprentices to learn a trade, skill, or group of skills. As coaches, they can help students
grow, develop, and expand the tools, knowledge, and skills they need to be successful.
The mentors assess the protégés’ learning needs and then deliver supplementary
one-on-one assistance in the areas where development or growth is needed. As
problems or areas of interest are identified, the mentors work with the students to solve 329
the problems or explore the issues (McKenzie et al., 2006).
In today’s corporations and other organizations, mentoring is usually a relationship
between senior employees and new or more junior employees but can also be a
relationship between more experienced and less experienced peers. While this type of
relationship can be natural, spontaneous, or accidental, many businesses and
educational organizations are institutionalizing structured mentoring programs
because they value and see the benefits of mentor-protégé relationships (Johnson et al.,
1999). Effective mentors serve as a guide to both the workplace and what their charges
should be learning in their distance training and education courses, helping mentored
employees in areas such as setting and meeting training goals alongside navigating
office politics and other more informal duties (Owens, 2006).
Although e-learning can provide or be used to deliver gigabytes of information, most
learners still enjoy the human touch provided by interacting and communicating with a
real, live coach or mentor. These “instructors”, acting as both subject matter experts and
intellectual touchstones, can offer advice, guidance, assistance and feedback on both
learning projects and real work assignments. Despite the often-impersonal nature of
technology used in modern education, these human relationships continue to be
important even as we undergo the transformation into the technology age.

E-mentoring adds a human element to computer-mediated learning

Mentors and coaches are being used as a tangible human presence in the learning to
communicate the positive messages of the training program, assist in instruction and
mediate the flow of the learning, motivate learners with real life scenarios and advice,
and advise students about keeping to schedules and making time for learning during
the workday (Falconer, 2006). Mentors and coaches can facilitate communication, share
experiences, collaborate with students, and in the case of virtual courses, help to reduce
the sense of isolation experienced by many online learners. As both experts and
confidants, they can help to adapt online learning to different learning styles, and
individualize and personalize the program, and therefore, make it more effective,
memorable, and sustainable.
E-mentoring, in particular, allows for faster response time and more opportunity for
flexibility in creating and maintaining relationships even over great distances. It can
help overcome some of the traditional barriers to offline mentoring such as
organizational structure, interpersonal skills, and cross-gender relationships (Falconer,
2006). This fosters positive interactions and communication between mentors and
mentored learners.

Skilled e-mentors can support distance teaching

Any mentoring program, however, is only going to be as strong as its mentors. It is
important that adept mentors are identified, recruited, and supported. Ridout (2005)
TLO lists the characteristics of good mentors. Good mentors are responsive, good at
15,4 listening, open and honest, non-judgmental and ethical, approachable and available,
good at observing and problem solving, and patient, and they set expectations and
have a genuine interest in helping the protégé. Effective mentoring does not take a
great deal of time, as the role of the mentors is not to provide answers but to make
suggestions, ask the right questions and point the students in the right direction. They
330 must encourage the learners to think independently, use the new knowledge or skills to
reach their goals not by feeding them information but by making them find the
information for themselves. In distance training and education programs, this can be
done just as effectively in person or virtually in e-mail or other online interactions.
In e-mentoring programs, the distance factor often allows participants to express
themselves more freely than in face-to-face communication. This often provides a more
honest, open, and reflective learning environment where, in addition to the course
topics and mastering work or trade skills, mentoring pairs can explore their values,
feelings, and objectives more freely than when sitting in the same room or speaking on
the telephone, where there is often added pressure to respond immediately. More than
in classroom situations or synchronous online teaching venues, using the virtual
medium of asynchronous communication, mentors can create a reflective learning
environment where, in addition to the subject matter, the participants can discuss and
explore these values, feelings and objectives more deeply and reflectively and over a
longer period of time (Headlam-Wells et al., 2005). By operating more as teaching
partners than as authority figures in this virtual social environment, mentors can also
minimize status barriers and partially or completely remove the effects of the
organizational hierarchy.

The benefits of e-mentoring for mentors

Mentors can also benefit by participating in the mentoring exercise. Most professionals
realize that corporations and businesses identify top performers from the ranks of the
seasoned veterans, subject matter experts, or experienced managers or peers, and
reward employees by selecting them as mentors. One way these mentors benefit is by
contributing to the organization and the profession with the satisfaction of knowing
that their knowledge, ideas, and expertise are valued, utilized, and appreciated (Eby
and Lockwood, 2005; Ridout, 2005).
Many mentors also report that their protégés often provide them with fresh
perspectives on old ideas or processes, connections to new or different networking
opportunities, and, especially in cases where the protégé is right out of school,
up-to-date information on new and innovative technologies, practices and ideas in their
shared areas of work. Many mentors report that their teaching and course design skills
improve when they review skills with students, locate information to share with them,
assist them with technology issues, guide the trainees, and their own knowledge, work
skills and expertise are enhanced by working with the mentees (McKenzie et al., 2006;
Ridout, 2005).

The benefits for the organizations sponsoring e-mentoring programs

Beyond the benefits mentoring programs provide to participating employees, the
corporations and businesses benefit as institutional knowledge and organizational
mission and culture are passed along naturally and experientially rather than formally
in an orientation or classroom setting (Kerka, 1998). Using mentoring techniques, E-mentoring
experienced personnel can recognize and develop new talent and share practical
know-how and wisdom.
Most corporations and businesses look to cut back on the number of instructors and
total teaching days and replace them with pre-packaged offline or online courses. In
addition, when trainers are conducting classroom and online training, they do not have
the additional time that is necessary to act as online course managers to assist in tasks 331
such as course registration or to act as computer technology consultants to assist in
technical questions and technical troubleshooting (Chang, 2004). Having mentors
available helps to fill these and allows the organization to meet the many
non-instructional needs of the students such as the desire to have reflective, open-ended
assignments rather than the tests and quizzes that are common in technology-based
and other distance training and education.
Mentoring can also help with employee retention. In today’s job markets, employees
are often hired because of specific expertise but still may need help adapting to
organizational policies, procedures, and culture. These younger employees are more
likely than prior generations to change jobs more frequently. Many employers find it
difficult to balance the need to offer continuing education and career development with
the risk of losing these well-trained, highly skilled workers to other companies (Robert,
2005). The personal connections and positive public relations inherent in a mentoring
program that supports the education program make it more likely that a younger
employee will stay with the organization.
These technology savvy employees, having grown up with computers, the internet,
instant messaging, cell phones, and other forms of instant or near instant
communication are more inclined to want fast and reliable access to relevant
information and real activities, scenarios, and simulations. Although they are also
more inclined to use self-study learning guides, web-based training, internet or other
discussion boards or forums, online workshops, wireless courseware, and other forms
of online learning (Robert, 2005), often they also desire quick and informed feedback.
e-mentoring can address the desire for immediate comment and reaction and also help
to build mutually-beneficial relationships that, even if they do not foster complete
loyalty to the organization, can help to build a positive learning experience and keep
the employees happy and in place.

The challenges for e-mentoring programs

Many of the challenges of distance training and education stem from the changing
nature of work in the modern age, the transition of organizations as they have fewer
boundaries and ownership of specific responsibilities are blurred or unclear, the new
and unfamiliar virtual nature of the internet learning, and the flexibility and countless
opportunities for change (Johnson et al., 1999). Of course, as with any type of
instruction, interaction, or communication, there are challenges specific to a mentoring
endeavor. Funding the effort, finding mentors, matching them with appropriate
learners, getting a dedicated amount of their time, and continuing to support the
program can take an enormous amount of initial administration and effort for the
organization.
In the case of e-mentoring, if the technology or software too complex and difficult to
navigate, trainees find they need more up front training in its use but cannot get it, or
TLO they are unfamiliar with the ways and means of communicating online, they will not
15,4 reap the full benefits of the mentorship program. Fluency in online communication is a
vital skill in these instances, and the tools and processes involved are not always
intuitive and may require additional planning, training, and support. Due to the
astonishing growth of corporate universities and other programs, it is often difficult to
find a sufficient number of highly skilled trainers to accommodate the sheer number of
332 participants. In these cases, an organization can turn to mentors to fill the gap.
However, the best mentors are also usually the most productive, effective, and
critical employees and any time spent on managing learning is often seen as
detrimental to the organization. In addition, not all willing mentors turn out to be the
most qualified or as qualified as they self-reported when volunteering or being
assigned to the program. Even if willing and competent mentors are plentiful, the
startup costs of online learning are expensive and many observers perceive online
mentoring programs as diverting time and money from other more urgent or needed
learning initiatives (Lisagor, 2005). Preparatory training in the technology, software,
online communication and related areas can be expensive. It is often difficult to procure
funding for the proper tools, initial administrative costs, time away from work costs,
etc.

Overcoming challenges faced by e-mentoring programs

To get the necessary time, money, and support, selling the long-term benefits of the
program is key. As with other training enterprises, focusing on the return on
investment (ROI) is not as important as focusing on the desired results, such as
building intellectual capital, building learning communities, nurturing experts and
creating new ones, and an awareness that quality learning requires quality inputs that
include human capital (Allee, 2000).
In addition, educating key decision-makers early on about effective teaching and
learning practices that include e-mentoring, recruiting and retaining proven educators
with a long track record of success in passing on knowledge, and providing reasonable
and sound structures and guidelines for the mentoring partnership are all ways to
ensure success. One major advantage of an e-mentoring system is actually its overall
cost effectiveness. Although there are high startup costs, once established the
operational costs of a computer-moderated mentoring program are relatively low
(Headlam-Wells et al., 2005).

Other findings of mentoring and e-mentoring case studies

Many case studies have shown the effectiveness of mentoring programs and that they
really do help to sustain distance training and education programs. Former mentees
have reported improved career outcomes, more job satisfaction, comfort in the social
culture of the organization, and higher income. However, the benefits for the ones being
mentored are not always equal. While it is clear that e-mentoring levels the playing
field by providing flexibility and easy access to those who might otherwise be excluded
due to gender, ethnicity, disability, or geography, administrators and e-mentors must
remember that there is a “digital divide” and participants that have online access both
at work and at home have a clear advantage over those who do not (Headlam-Wells
et al., 2005).
 In a review of the mentoring program of the American Physical Therapy E-mentoring
Association, Ridout (2005) lists ways that the organization gets the most from their
mentoring program. But the list could be used by any corporation or business to
enhance its own program. Ridout found that it is necessary for both participants in the
mentoring relationship to clearly state and set expectations, share information about
themselves, be responsive and communicate clearly, and be open and honest. This
relationship will not be successful unless it is supported by the organization whose 333
responsibility it is to find a mentor to help the learner, provide the resources, help
determine the framework of the coaching, create a cultural climate conducive to
maintaining a mentoring approach, and help the participants judge what constitutes
success and how the progression of the process will be evaluated (Wade, 2004).
What is most interesting is that during interviews of participants from a variety of
mentoring programs at different corporations, both protégés and mentors reported
learning as the most common benefit of participation (Eby and Lockwood, 2005). In
this and other qualitative research studies, both groups reported that mentoring helped
in understanding different parts of the business and obtaining different perspectives
on work-related problems above and beyond the subject matter of any training courses
with which the mentors might be assisting. In addition, many other unintended
benefits of a mentoring relationship have been reported, including more ease of career
planning, networking opportunities, and developing personal relationships (Eby and
Lockwood, 2005; Owens, 2006; Ridout, 2005).
While an online coaching program can benefit any employee, according to most
reports, studies, and anecdotal evidence, e-mentoring programs tend to be especially
successful for female protégés (Dartmouth University, 1999; Perren, 2003; Rossett,
2002a, 2002b, 2002c). The flexibility offered by the often asynchronous nature of the
communication via e-mail or message boards allows participants with family,
childcare and other obligations, usually taken on more by women, to schedule the
interactions with the mentors around these other obligations.

Conclusion
Because much of the offline and online distance training and education content does
not involve a live instructor, having a mentor or coach available to ask questions,
bounce ideas, get pointed in the right direction, and get assistance can be vital to the
success and maintenance of a distance education program. In addition, there are not
enough instructors available to handle the growing numbers of students using offline
and online distance training and education programs available to them. Waiting for
guidance and questions from a generalized e-mail account or teaching organization can
be frustrating and hurt the reputation of the training organization.
Having assigned mentors available and ready to respond quickly not only assists
the learners but also creates a positive perception of the department or division
sponsoring this support and can help to sustain and expand the online education or
training program. Just offering computer-based training (CBT), web-based training
(WBT), online live training, online tutorials, frequently asked questions (FAQ)
databases, knowledge management databases, or performance management systems
is not enough. The people utilizing these tools of learning will often need or desire some
type of human action, intervention, or assistance at some point in the course of study
and learning.
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Corresponding author
Zane L. Berge can be contacted at: berge@umbc.edu

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