Desarrollo y evaluación de una experiencia piloto de mentoría con estudiantes de primer ciclo de Educación Superior a Distancia, Centro Universitario Asociado Quito.

Abstract

The high rate of failure and desertion in distance education has highlighted the need to provide a more direct and personalized counseling service to students. UTPL, always willing to contribute and improve the quality of open and distance education (MAD), has proposed this mentoring investigation project between peers. This investigation work was done with 11 psychology students that have just started their education at the Quito Regional Center. Participatory Action, Descriptive, Analytical - Synthetic, Inductive, Deductive and Statistical research methods were used. The instruments used were expectations and fears questionnaires; orientation needs questionnaires and thinking skills questionnaires. Students who participated in this study reported feeling closeness and bonding; they felt, they were not alone in this new study process they had just started. They also reported they felt guided and supported, both in their studies, as well as, in the integration and adaptation process to UTPL and distance education. The reader is invited to review this educational improvement project and to consult the mentor’s manual offered at the end.