Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17: Issue 1 89 ONLINE MENTORING FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY GRADUATE STUDENTS: AN INDUSTRY- ACADEMIA PARTNERSHIP Rana Khan University of Maryland University College Arhonda Gogos Independent Consultant and External Evaluator ABSTRACT The Professional Science Master’s Biotechnology program at the University of Maryland University College developed and implemented a novel online mentoring program to increase synergy with the biotechnology industry. In this program, Master’s students are paired with mentors from the biotechnology industry. A mentor assistant, who is a graduate of the degree program, assists each pair. Utilizing an open source platform and web-based technologies, each pair interacts on a regular basis to formulate and/or revise the students’ professional goals and action plans. Each pair continues their interaction until the student graduates. The impact of the mentoring program is assessed through several measures including feedback on surveys and academic performance. The program grew from 19 mentor- mentee pairs in fall 2009 to 46 pairs in fall 2011. This trend and the current student retention rate of 79% suggest increasing student interest. Among the students who joined the mentoring program, those who continued participating had completed more courses/credit hours at the time of joining than the students who dropped from the program. The end-of-semester questionnaires showed generally positive student satisfaction and provided specific examples of gains in the students’ ability to identify and pursue their career goals. The number of courses completed by the mentees was significantly higher than the number of courses completed by a comparison group of non-participants, indicating a possible effect of their participation in the mentoring program. So far, more mentees graduated than the comparison group of non-participants, and in less overall time. As the program progresses, possible effects on students’ academic achievement and time-to-graduation will be reevaluated. The effectiveness of the mentoring program on improving the participants’ career prospects after graduation will also be examined. The benefit of such a novel program is the ease with which it bridges the gap between industry and academia, providing a remarkable career development opportunity for students while building a strong community of professionals. KEYWORDS Mentoring; biotechnology; distance education; industry I. INTRODUCTION University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is one of the largest public universities in the U.S. with primarily online degree programs. It serves a diverse student population that is geographically dispersed, and it is one of a handful of universities that offers online Professional Science Master’s (PSM) programs (http://sciencemasters.com). PSM programs address the growing need for graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One of the key features of PSM programs is its focus on addressing workforce needs and preparing students with skills desired by employers, which requires a close relationship between these programs and the industry. UMUC is well aware of this
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Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17: Issue 1 89
ONLINE MENTORING FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY
GRADUATE STUDENTS: AN INDUSTRY-
ACADEMIA PARTNERSHIP
Rana Khan
University of Maryland University College
Arhonda Gogos
Independent Consultant and External Evaluator
ABSTRACT
The Professional Science Master’s Biotechnology program at the University of Maryland University
College developed and implemented a novel online mentoring program to increase synergy with the
biotechnology industry. In this program, Master’s students are paired with mentors from the
biotechnology industry. A mentor assistant, who is a graduate of the degree program, assists each pair.
Utilizing an open source platform and web-based technologies, each pair interacts on a regular basis to
formulate and/or revise the students’ professional goals and action plans. Each pair continues their
interaction until the student graduates. The impact of the mentoring program is assessed through several
measures including feedback on surveys and academic performance. The program grew from 19 mentor-
mentee pairs in fall 2009 to 46 pairs in fall 2011. This trend and the current student retention rate of 79%
suggest increasing student interest. Among the students who joined the mentoring program, those who
continued participating had completed more courses/credit hours at the time of joining than the students
who dropped from the program. The end-of-semester questionnaires showed generally positive student
satisfaction and provided specific examples of gains in the students’ ability to identify and pursue their
career goals. The number of courses completed by the mentees was significantly higher than the number
of courses completed by a comparison group of non-participants, indicating a possible effect of their
participation in the mentoring program. So far, more mentees graduated than the comparison group of
non-participants, and in less overall time. As the program progresses, possible effects on students’
academic achievement and time-to-graduation will be reevaluated. The effectiveness of the mentoring
program on improving the participants’ career prospects after graduation will also be examined. The
benefit of such a novel program is the ease with which it bridges the gap between industry and academia,
providing a remarkable career development opportunity for students while building a strong community
of professionals.
KEYWORDS
Mentoring; biotechnology; distance education; industry
I. INTRODUCTION
University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is one of the largest public universities in the U.S.
with primarily online degree programs. It serves a diverse student population that is geographically
dispersed, and it is one of a handful of universities that offers online Professional Science Master’s (PSM)
programs (http://sciencemasters.com). PSM programs address the growing need for graduates in the fields
of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One of the key features of PSM programs
is its focus on addressing workforce needs and preparing students with skills desired by employers, which
requires a close relationship between these programs and the industry. UMUC is well aware of this
Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership
90 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17: Issue 1
necessity, as illustrated in one of its strategy statements: “Ensure that our academic programs and services
are responsive to a changing workforce and a changing world” [1]. In the PSM programs at UMUC close
ties are established mainly through advisory boards that comprise industry professionals. Although the
need for academia-industry collaborative relationships to enhance student learning and professional
development is important in all academic settings, they are even more important for online programs.
Most students in online programs are working professionals and adults with competing demands on their
time and more likely to suffer from disengagement due to limited professional and community building
opportunities [2].
The PSM Biotechnology program at UMUC has a student body of approximately 460 students. The
program consists of three specializations in Biotechnology Management, Bioinformatics, and Biosecurity
and Biodefense. The degree requires completion of 36 credits (12 courses) as illustrated in Figure 1. The
program has grown by 85% in the past five years and the number of graduates has increased by 44%.
Students are allowed up to 7 years to complete the degree, but the average time to degree completion is
about 3 years. This PSM program fosters a relationship with the industry by integrating a professional
skills component in the curriculum. This component, developed in collaboration with the industry, is
offered in the capstone course (Figure 1) in the form of a semester long "virtual internship," where
students work in teams to complete a project sponsored and supervised by a company [3]. Although these
internships allow students to get a closer view into the way the biotechnology industry functions, they
typically occur during the last semester or towards the end of the students’ studies.
Common Core (5 courses)
New Student
Capstone Course (1 course)
Biotechnology
Management(6 courses)
Bioinformatics
(6 courses)
Biosecurity
andBiodefense
(6 courses)
Graduation Figure 1: PSM Biotechnology Program Structure showing number of courses and specializations.
Mentoring programs have been offered in academic and professional settings for decades. Research in
academia indicates that mentoring has a positive impact on the personal and professional development of
students [4]. A growing body of research in higher education also suggests an empirical link between
student mentoring and student retention [5, 6]. A research study where students were randomly assigned
to either an experimental group which received mentoring, or a control group which did not, showed that
mentored students displayed higher retention rates than non-mentored students with similar pre-
enrollment characteristics [7]. A more recent study conducted at Stanford University [8] indicates that
“coaching” of undergraduate students leads to 13% higher completion rate and 10-15% higher retention
rate. All the aforementioned studies were conducted on undergraduate students.
At the graduate level, mentoring has been part of the daily interactions between university faculty or
physicians as mentors, and graduate or medical students or postdoctoral fellows as mentees [9, 10].
Programs for training research faculty to become better mentors have been implemented [11], and
instruments that assess roles and evaluate perceptions within mentoring relationships have been validated
and used in clinical and translational science environments [12]. A recent survey of division chiefs in
Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17: Issue 1 91
Pediatrics [13] indicates that the majority of the chiefs had dyadic (senior to junior) mentoring
relationships and believed that mentoring would be beneficial to their faculty. In summary, the consensus
of published studies indicates that mentoring is beneficial to students.
Meta-analysis of literature has examined the effectiveness of mentoring in academic environments and in
the workplace. Specifically, Eby et al found that although there is some association between mentoring
and career attitudes (e.g., career expectations or perceived employment opportunity), the effect size was
small [14]. Ingersoll and Strong critically evaluated 15 empirical studies looking at the effect of
mentoring on three outcomes among new teachers: retention, classroom practices and student
achievement [15]. The majority of the studies showed a positive impact of induction, which includes
mentoring as a major component, on all three outcomes. Finally, in another study focusing on corporate
mentoring programs, the effect size of mentoring on career outcomes was found to be significant [16].
Online mentoring programs are not as common as traditional ones. Examples of current online mentoring
programs include (1) Mentornet, a non-profit organization that pairs students from participating colleges
with science and engineering professionals (www.mentornet.net); and (2) Lifeworks E-mentoring, which
is run by the National Institutes of Health, Office of Science Education, and pairs high school or college
students with professionals in the biomedical or healthcare industry (science-
education.nih.gov/LifeWorks/Ementoring).
In the fall of 2009 the PSM Biotechnology program at UMUC launched an online professional mentoring
program as a student support service to address two goals:
1. develop closer and more sustained ties with the biotechnology industry, and
2. create a nurturing and professional development community for its geographically dispersed
students.
This program provides students in the online Biotechnology Master’s program the opportunity to work
closely with mentors from the industry. The mentors assist students in exploring realistic career goals,
developing an awareness of workforce needs and advances in the biotechnology industry, and acquiring
skills for a successful career. As a consequence of this interaction the mentoring program is expected to
enhance the learning experiences and marketability of our diverse student population.
This paper discusses the UMUC biotechnology online mentoring model; the program’s development and
implementation; its impact on student professional development and academic performance; as well as
challenges and future directions.
II. BIOTECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL MENTORING PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION
A. Mentoring Model
In this novel online mentoring model, each mentee, who is a student in the biotechnology degree
program, is paired with a volunteer mentor, who is a biotechnology professional from the industry,
government or academia.
The following key features set this model apart from other mentoring programs:
1. It is offered at the graduate level and it is embedded in the degree program.
2. It has participants who are geographically dispersed. It utilizes web-based technologies to enable
flexibility in participation and management of resources.
3. It is potentially sustainable through the participation of program graduates as mentors.
4. It provides a mentor assistant (MA) for each pair of mentor-mentee, to facilitate and monitor their
interaction, and to ensure that any questions or issues are addressed promptly.
The last key feature is a unique aspect of this model because MAs are involved in every step of the
program implementation, from student selection to successful interaction between the pairs until the
student’s graduation.
Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership
92 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17: Issue 1
As an added advantage, this mentoring program advances the university’s relationship with the
biotechnology industry, and provides an opportunity for the industry to shape future employees by
directly advising students and providing feedback on the curriculum.
B. Platform for Mentoring Program Interaction
The mentoring model and platform were designed and developed over a period of one year. The Advisory
Board for the UMUC PSM programs provided recommendations on the requirements for the mentoring
platform. Claroline, an open-source learning management system, was identified as the best fit for our
needs, namely because: (i) it was free of charge, (ii) the backend programming language was known to in-
house technical support which allowed easy customization, (iii) it provided an area for collaboration, and
an area for sharing documents, (iv) it allowed private groups to be set up for each mentor-mentee-mentor
assistant threesome, (v) it included a calendar, and (vi) it offered a video conferencing feature.
Over the same year, documents that were considered essential for the program were developed, including
application forms for all three types of participants, marketing materials for advertising the program and
recruiting mentors, end-of-semester assessment forms for the participants, and the professional action
plan (PAP) forms for the students. Since the program’s launch, other documents including tips for getting
the most out of a mentoring relationship and expectations for mentees and mentors have also been
developed. For example, the “tips” document for mentees advises them to be responsible, to remember
that the burden of the relationship is on them, and to be reliable and prepared. Suggested “tips” for
mentors include being a good listener, asking questions to guide the student, and providing support and
alternatives to students’ current goals. The expectations for the mentees include being proactive, listening
and following through to the mentor’s suggestions, and being prepared for the meetings. The expectations
for the mentors include guiding their mentees in clarifying their short and long term goals, and meeting
with them regularly.
The online interaction platform (http://psmmentoring.umuc.edu) was customized to have two areas. The
public area provides information on the mentoring program; a description of benefits and responsibilities
for mentors and mentees; application forms; the grant proposal and other background information. The
private area, which requires login, includes (a) classrooms for each mentor-student pair, where they are
able to chat, send emails, share documents, or have audio/video conferencing with each other; (b)
common areas for all participants where they can share experiences and tips; and (c) an online component
for data collection (end-of-semester questionnaires).
C. Participants’ Selection and the Mentoring Process
1. Selection of Participants
Graduate students who are within the first 18 credits (6 courses) of the Biotechnology program are invited
to apply to the mentoring program every fall and spring semester. This upper limit of 6 courses completed
before joining the mentoring program was imposed so that students can participate for at least 2-3
semesters while they are completing a minimum of 6 remaining courses (Figure 1). The selection criteria
include writing skill, articulation of reasons why students are pursuing the biotechnology degree, and
justification for what makes them an appropriate candidate for the mentoring program. Grades and
academic performance are not part of the selection criteria. These student selection criteria were designed
to give every student, irrespective of their academic performance, a chance to apply and be selected for
the mentoring program. Since the online nature of the program would necessitate substantial
communication with the mentor, either via email or phone, it was decided to use oral and written
communication skills as criteria. Considering that all the mentors in the program are volunteers, it was
important to pick students who were genuinely interested in this support service and were going to make
the most of it. Each application is screened and scored by two MAs based on a rubric. Those who meet
the preset cutoff score are invited for a phone interview with the MAs, which is the final step in the