Abstract:

Initial and continuous support, such as mentoring (among peers), has been a strategy widely adopted by different distance higher education institutions, namely in the European context, in order to support new students in their academic integration, reduce isolation, facilitate collaboration and create a sense of belonging to a community;thus, this support is provided by students at more advanced levels of training.

Not being a new practice, it has evolved over time, inspiring various interpretations of its action and implementation. Assuming to be a crucial factor for student success in the context of distance education institutions, this subsystem of student support emerges as a central aspect in social and cognitive presence (Garrison & anderson, 2003) and in the creation of knowledge and ties in and on the community.

It is in this sense that this presentation, based in a pilot e-mentoring project implemented in a department of an european Open University, framed in the paradigm of Virtual Learning Communities and within the framework of the Model of the Community of Inquiry (CoI), aims to present a set of assumptions for the construction of an e-mentoring model adapted to this teaching-learning modality and adapted to the students profile.

Keywords:

E-mentoring, e-mentoring model, online higher education, community of inquiry.