Navigating Digital Transformation

The Role of Mentorship in Facilitating Learner Agency

Abstract

This paper outlines the design and implementation experience of a mentorship-based teaching approach for a third-year undergraduate Information Systems on Digital Strategy and Transformation. In its first iteration in 2021, the course struggled with a lack of engagement between staff and students, and overwhelmed students at the end of the semester. The mentorship-based teaching approach was trialled in the second iteration of the course to encourage learner agency and improvement in the students’ learning journey. Implementation of mentorship-based teaching resulted in a higher overall course satisfaction rate and improved staff-student engagement. The application of the mentorship model has been continually fine-tuned each semester since its implementation in 2021. The experience from this design and implementation serves as a case study to incorporate mentorship into the curriculum to facilitate learner agency. Educators may apply a similar process and framework to design a mentorship-based teaching strategy regardless of discipline.