How this practice supports access: Florida State University's Office of Distributed and Distance Learning (ODDL) created a mentor program to provide more effective student support services. The program was created in response to unacceptably high withdrawal rates in distance learning courses due to studentsÂ’ feelings of isolation, and to online faculty fears that there were too many students for them to handle preparation, instruction, monitoring, communication, and evaluation effectively. FSU's ODDL believed that mentors would provide an appropriate level of distance and detachment from the institution, the instructor, and coursemates. Additionally, mentors would be better able to relate to the online learning population with its different demographic characteristics. Mentor duties include:

• Completing course materials
• Initiating and maintaining contact with students
• responding to student communication in a timely manner
• Facilitating electronic learning and discussion groups
• Attending to student progress, grading assignments, and reporting grades, and
• Communicating with course faculty

In 2001, FSU created a tool for students in online courses called the Mentor Performance Report (MPR) designed to seek specific feedback on mentor performance as outlined in the mentor job description.

The form is available to students throughout the semester so that students can report problems at any time. The form includes both open response comment areas and five specific questions related to the mentor support function. ODDL supports mentors by several means. An Implementation Coordinator (IC) communicates regularly with mentors, in the process modeling how mentors are similarly expected to engage with students, the IC also provides referral resources and serves as liaison to student services. There is also ongoing training and development via a Mentor Team Website as well as through audio-conferences, face-to-face meetings and focus groups.