A mentor program in CS1

Abstract

Mentor programs are a highly effective way of assisting students with the transition from high school to university. This paper documents the introduction of the mentor program in our department. In this program, higher year students volunteered to act as mentors to incoming freshmen. Mentors fulfilled technical and social roles assisting freshmen with the transition to university and with their studies in computer science.We explain the details of mentor selection and their activities during the semester. We evaluate the outcomes of mentoring for students, mentors and the department.

Effectiveness of peer mentoring in the study entry phase: A systematic review

“…In conclusion, peer mentoring has demonstrated high effectiveness across various levels, with a primary emphasis on improving academic and social integration through participation in peer mentoring programmes. After participating, students often reported that they would recommend participation in peer mentoring programmes for all first‐year students (Barrachina et al., 2011) and that they found mentors to be particularly helpful during the transition to university life (Miller & Kay, 2002). According to students, participation has facilitated the transition from school to university (Akinla et al., 2018).…”

Life's a game and the game of life

“…Pair programming has been found to be successful in helping students learn to program in the first course/year [16,20]. Mentoring of students in various ways has also proven to be valuable to first year students [11,18]. And most recently, the trend of flipping the classroom has made its way into the first year of programming instruction, especially as the advent of massive online education appears to be growing [15].…”