Role of Whatsapp in Student Mentoring

Role of Whatsapp in Student Mentoring

Muhsin P M

Department of Computer Science Santhigiri College of Computer Sciences, Vazhithala

Thodupuzha, Kerala, India

Bijimol T. K.

Department of Computer Science Santhigiri College of Computer Sciences, Vazhithala

Thodupuzha, Kerala, India

Abstract Mentoring is the process by which person assists another to grow and learn in a safe and sympathetic relationship. Usually parents are the primary mentors and teachers are secondary. Yet, they spend the lion share of their time in educational institutions. So, teacher can contribute more to the overall development of the students. Mentoring is also a part of it. Earlier, there was only one to one mentoring but, as the wheels of time rolled and the technology got enhanced, the style of mentoring also got transformed. As one to one communication bounced from physical presence of both to a virtual presence, the way of mentoring also bounced. WhatsApp plays an indispensable role in it. This paper conducted a survey among selected persons and the results reveal that majority of the candidates are using WhatsApp for mentoring.

Keywords- Mentoring, WhatsApp, mentor-mentee relationship

1. INTRODUCTION

   Mentoring can be described as relationship between the less experienced mentee and more experienced and knowledgeable mentor. Mentee follows the instructions given by his mentor to be successful. On the other hand mentor guides and supports his mentee in attaining his goal. Mentoring existed in olden days too but in a different way. The word mentor is taken from the ancient Greek[1].

   But as time passed the not only style of mentoring but also dimensions of the word mentoring also changed. The traditional one to one mentoring gave way to e-mentoring or digital mentoring. This type of mentoring will be more effective than the older method as most of the people spend lot of time in social media like WhatsApp.

2. MENTORING

   The teacher student relationship is very important for a good learning environment. There should be an effective communication between the student and his teacher. A teacher can influence his/her students to a greater extent. The teachers are the ones who should mold todays children to be tomorrows citizens. Students may face different problems like tension, family problems, etc. A good teacher helps his students overcome these difficulties [2].

   Mentoring has many advantages:

   1. Attaining carrier goals: One may be having a dream of getting promoted to higher levels, some may be looking for a higher salary package but they are unable to do so. This may be due to the lack of some skill. But after receiving the suggestions of his mentor they could simply achieve it.

   2. Helps in increasing self confidence: One may have the ability but still he/she may be afraid to step out of their comfort zone because of the absents of self confidence. Interactions with mentor enable him to realize his own potentials and also to showcase his talents with confidence.

   3. Developing leadership skills: Often people lack this skill which is very important. Mentoring helps us to accrue this enables us to face people and also to be mentors in future.

   4. Time management: Time is the most valuable thing in this world. It is a fact that the one who manages time well become successful .Through mentoring it possible to learn how to manage time It helps us to make a proper schedule and thereby an effective utilization of time.

   5. Develops good behavior: There are so many values which we should be inculcate in us .Our mentors will instruct as to follow them and to be a good personality[5].

3. DIFFERENT TYPES OF MENTORING

   There are different types of mentoring. Mentor chooses one style of considering the mentees attitude and his problem.

   1. Active listening style: In this style mentee is given the freedom to ask questions. In listening style mentee can make his own choices.

   2. Advisory style: Giving the mentee suggestions to overcome his problem.

   3. Prescribing style: The mentor takes the responsibility of solving the mentors problems by giving instructions.

   4. Cooperative style: Mentor involves the mentee also in problem solving. Mentees suggestions are also conceded and the problem is solved by the combined effort of mentor and mentee[4].

4. WHATSAPP

   The users can use WhatsApp to send audio video text images and documents. The users can also receive the same from other users. In this modern era of technology this social networking platform can also be used for mentoring.

   WHATSAPP BRIEF HISTORY

   WHATSAPP was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum who served earlier for yahoo. Jan Koum named there app as WhatsApp in August 2014. On February 24,

   2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California and it was launched on that day. WhatsApp was the most globally popular messaging app with more than 600 million active users by early January 2015. WhatsApp 2.0 was released with a messaging component and the number of active users suddenly increased to 250,000. On November 2009 WhatsApp was added to app store. In 2010, WhatsApp was introduced in the Android platform. It was on 19th February 2014 that Facebook announced that they will buy WhatsApp and on 22nd of the same month they purchased it. WhatsApp started a new venture by launching WhatsApp business for business use.

   WHATSAPP AND MENTORING

   The mentor and mentee may not be free at the same time so the mentee can ask his doubt when he wants to and the mentor can replay when he is free. Not only that the mentee can share the mentors advice to other people and it will be very helpful for them. Adding to this the mentor can form a group of his mentees to share instructions at a time to many. It saves time and make mentoring more efficient and far reaching[3].

5. RESERCH METHODOLOGY

   Researchers are conducted to learn something new in a scientific and systematic way. Before saying something we should actually study about it and prove it in front of others.

   1. Primary data collection

      There are different ways for collecting data. Qualitative data collection, Quantitative data collection and Triangulation are three methods. In qualitative research data is collected in two ways to collect data namely verbal or numerical form. Many researchers use this technique at the beginning of the research. This method helps in collecting data from more samples in population. Measurable data is collected in qualitative data collection. Statistical models and images give clarification about the findings of researcher. Questionnaires and surveys are the different ways in which data is collected in this method. Triangulation can be described as a hybrid of both qualitative and quantitative data as it combines the advantages to make data collection systematic leading to accurate result.

   2. Questionnaire method

      In this method a list of questions are prepared based on the subject of the research. The researcher collects the answers for the question from the public and based on the answers of the people he reaches his inference.

   3. Secondary data collection

      In secondary data collection the researcher collects information from books, articles, internet, etc. Compared to primary data collection it is easier but its problem is that the data wont be up to date and accurate as in the case of primary data.

   4. Sampling

      In most cases it wont be easy to collect data fro the whole population in such cases the research person collects data from a selected few and he analyses it and assume that it is the opinion of entire population

6. DATA ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS

   The data should be properly analyzed because all samples may not fill the form some may not answer some questions. All such samples are to be considered as invalid. One should consider only valid samples for making conclusion. In this research, separate forms were given for teachers and students. The forms where send online to 50 students and 30 teachers of nearby collages. 14 students and 3 teachers did not submit their forms 5 students and a teacher had errors. The conclusions are made by summarizing the data given by the reaming samples.

   1. Are you a mentor?

      exp1: Here we see that most of the teachers are mentors. So the students have more opportunity to get guidance personally. As per the collected data 73% of teachers are mentors.

   2. Are you a mentee?

      exp2: In the graph we see that 60% of the students seek personal helps from teachers or other persons. It is a good sign as it shows the intent of the students to get out of their problems and work for a bright future.

   3. Do you use WhatsApp for mentoring?

   Those who use WhatsApp for mentoring (among students)

   Those who use WhatsApp for mentoring (among teachers)

   exp3.Most of the students and teachers i.e. mentees and mentors use WhatsApp for communication dew to easiness in use. 78% of mentees and 85% of mentors use WhatsApp for mentoring purpose. Only 10% out of the total are not using WhatsApp for mentoring.

   1. Is mentoring through WhatsApp effective?

      A deeper look into the opinion of mentors using WhatsApp for mentoring about the effectiveness of using WhatsApp for mentoring

      A look into the opinion of mentees who are using WhatsApp for mentoring about the effectiveness of using WhatsApp

      exp4 :In the combined graph we could visualize that only half i.e.50% supports mentoring and 43% has no commends on the question because they have not used WhatsApp for mentoring and only 7% say not effective. But we can see that more than 85% of mentors and mentees who are using WhatsApp for mentoring agree that mentoring through WhatsApp is effective. The 7% may be due to lack of practice in using WhatsApp or may be too long delays on getting replay.

   2. How much % of time you spend on WhatsApp for mentoring (Teachers)?

      mentees and students are mentors. Most of the mentors and mentees are using WhatsApp for mentoring it shows that they made effective utilization of technology a reality. Most of them say that mentoring through WhatsApp is effective and efficient.

      Suggestions make mentoring through WhatsApp more effective

      1. More emphasis on using WhatsApp like technology for mentoring.

      2. We should have more Mentors to guide not only students but also others who need help.

      3. Special training to teachers.

      4. Every student should feel free to interact with his teachers.

   3. How much % of time you spend on WhatsApp for mentoring (Students)?

   exp5 : it is clear that the teachers spend more time on WhatsApp for mentoring.

   Most of the students age range between 19 to24The most of the teachers age ranges from 35 to 4560% of students spend more than 20 hours in a week on WhatsApp.25%spend 10 to 20 hours and the remaining spend 5 to 10 hours weekly on WhatsApp40% percentage of teachers spend more than20 hours on WatsApp.35% use it for 10-20 hours and the remaining less than 10hrs.All of them have WhatsApp.75% started using WhatsApp before 3 or more yrs.20% of them are using it for the last two yrs. And the rest started using WhatsApp last year.

   All of them have WhatsApp. It shows that these people have adapted new technologies .Most of the teachers are

7. CONCLUSIONS

Mentoring is nothing but a more experienced person helping the less experienced to cope up with problems in life and to be successful by giving guiding and instructing. It may seem like it is simple but tough and complex. Even though complex it can influence the life of the mentee to greater extend in the modern era we can make anything simple and easy. I was looking to find a way out to make mentoring simple. WhatsApp now is a common way of communication nowadays. So I realized that it would be a good idea to use WhatsApp as a medium for mentoring. After analyzing all the collected data I could reach the conclusion that mentoring through WhatsApp is more efficient effective far reaching and adding to all that time saving when compared to direct one to one mentoring.

REFERENCES

1. Definition of Mentoring: Becky Wai-Packard MountHolyokeCollege. http://ehrweb.aaas.org/sciMentoring/

2. Impact of Students-Teacher Relationship on Student's:Learning: A Review of Literature

3. Yusra Alnasseri, International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship 6(1):167-172 · February 2014

4. WatsApp Goes to School: Mobile Instant Messaging between Teachers and Students.: Dan Bouhnik and Mor Deshen Bar- Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel Dan.Bouhnik@biu.ac.il Mor.Deshen@biu.ac.il

5. Ramazan Yirci, Dr.Ibrahim Kocabas,The Importance Of Mentoring For School Principals:A Conceptual Analysis This Work Is Produced By The Connexions Project And Licensed Under The Creative Common Attribution License

6. The Benefits Of Mentoring And Coaching In The Public Sector: Aaron Ganesh*, Alec Bozas*, Mogie Subban**, Elias Munap,Journal of Governance and Regulation, June 2015