A comparative UG near-peer mentoring model, for motivating school students towards innovations, during E-STEM education - A case study of Qatar

Abstract

The importance of online education and online learning has gained colossal importance during the present era. Despite online education being the savior during the current pandemic, its implementation was/has been quite puzzling. This article describes a novel approach to the execution of an E-STEM (online- Science, technology, engineering, mathematics) course for school students by integrating the near-peer mentoring approach. Wherein, the undergraduate (UG) students were the near-peer mentors, who had mentored/guided the school students (middle school & high school). Even though the E-STEM course was developed & presented by the STEM professionals, it was the near peer-mentors who were responsible for the constant motivation & assessment of the school students. The paper displays several roles of the UG mentors, predominantly aiding the students' motivation and also their assessment via a triangulation assessment approach: with the UG mentors being responsible for the indirect and embedded assessment of the students. The STEM course was efficaciously conducted for 56 students of high school and middle school students, involving 16 undergraduate near-peer mentors. Various E-tools and student-feedback mechanisms were used to implement the E-STEM course in a student-centered manner. Thereby, to reveal the success of the model, the student's feedback, pre-post questionnaires, and text message transcripts were investigated. The constructive roles of undergraduate mentors, in aiding the school students towards their active engagement, and STEM innovations, during E-learning, have been validated. A clear comparison had been made between the behavioral aspect of the high school students and middle school students with the UG mentor. Therefore, unlike many studies that had shown the success of the near-peer mentoring model, our article addresses the underlying process, that contributes to the success with a distinct comparison between the two (prior mentioned aspect).