When you start working as a tutor for the university you are allocated a mentor. A mentor is an experienced tutor who has usually tutored your module for a number of years. You might also be allocated a mentor if you are an experienced tutor, but are just about to start tutoring a new module.
The university adopts a ‘hands off’ approach regarding the mentor-mentee relationship. It is fundamentally up to you how you make use of your mentor. This said, what follows is a sketch of some of the help you can expect to receive from your mentor:
Arrange an introductory meeting. Fix a time to meet with your mentor for the first time so you can learn something about each other. This meeting should ideally occur just before the start of the module presentation. During the meeting, your mentor might give you a tour of the module website, or even show you some of the resources you may have access to as a tutor. If you haven’t been allocated a mentor, do contact your line manager and ask for one.
Share your introductory letter (or email). Draft an introductory email, and send it to them to ask for suggestions. Your line manager might also ask for this too.
Arrange times to visit their tutorials. Seeing what other people do and how they do it is invaluable. Your mentor might invite you to one (or more) of their tutorials to give you some idea of how everything works. Before the session, it might be useful to meet to determine whether you are to play a role in the tutorials.
Sharing of marking tips and guidance. Over a period of time, experience tutors might build up a set of notes that may help with their marking of the TMAs. Ask if they have any additional notes or guidance that they may be willing to share. Also, ask whether they have any tips when it comes to the marking of the TMAs.
Questions during marking. Sometimes students can submit answers that the module team did not expect. If this happens to you, and you’re not sure about how to approach the marking of a submission, do ask to speak with your mentor.
Questions during the presentation. If you are unsure what you supposed to be doing, or are unsure about what is in the ‘collective head’ of the module team, or receive a question that you’re unable to answer, do speak with your mentor.
As mentioned, the mentee-mentor relationship is what you make of it; you get out of it what you put into it. Remember; your mentor is paid (a small amount) to help you understand your new role.
An important point is that sometimes a mentee-mentor relationship doesn’t work as well as it ought to, and this may not be anyone’s fault. If you feel that things are not going well as you feel they should, do contact your line manager. It is okay to request a change of mentor if you feel that you are on different pages.
Resources
The university doesn’t provide a lot of guidance about the mentoring of tutoring. The following two OpenLearn resources offer potentially useful complementary perspectives. The first resource is specific to learning and teaching. The second offers a much broader perspective.
Reflections
Mentors can make a huge difference.
I remember meeting mine at one of his face-to-face tutorials. This gave me some really good ideas about how to run my own tutorials. I went on to create some materials that helped to understand what the assignments were looking for. A practical tip he shared was ‘work backwards from the assignments’, which was really helpful. He was also helpful when a challenging debate erupted on a discussion forum; he provided helpful reassurance, which claimed an increasing sense of panic.