An analysis of how peer mentors at university adjusted their mentoring strategy to facilitate better mentoring practice during COVID-19 from 2019–2021

A university launched a peer mentoring program to help students transition from school to undergraduate studies, focusing on social, cultural, and scholarly aspects of their early university experience. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for first-year students as teaching shifted online, creating a virtual environment. Peer mentors adapted their strategies to guide students effectively through this transition, despite having little prior experience in virtual mentoring. This study uses a mixed-method approach, combining statistical analysis with sentiment and topic modelling, to evaluate pre- and post-pandemic mentoring experiences. It found that while mentees often overlooked the challenges faced by mentors, the latter worked diligently to adapt and support students during this transition. Peer mentors demonstrated 'evolving innovation' to ensure consistency for the students they mentored.