Faculty Perceptions of E-Mentoring Doctoral Dissertations: Challenges, Strategies, and Institutional Support

Abstract

Faculty members who e-mentor dissertations in online doctoral programs, or remotely as a result of COVID-19 participated in an open-ended survey about strategies that helped them succeed, challenges they faced, and institutional support they would find helpful. Consistent communication, individualized support, and structure were found helpful for e-mentoring dissertations. Faculty overwhelmingly cited time, workload, and lack of institutional support as challenges, and stated that institutions could help e-mentors by providing support with the process, research resources, writing support, and time and incentives for e-mentoring. The results are discussed with recommendations for institutional support for dissertation e-mentoring.