Mentoring in a COVID-19 Context: What Support Measures Should be Adopted to Meet Which of the Needs Expressed by Students?

ABSTRACT

Our study examines peer mentoring between students during the period of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We interviewed student tutors at the University of Strasbourg about the support measures they put in place and the difficulties experienced by their mentees. For students in difficulty, it appeared to us that, after a year of educational continuity under COVID-19, distance learning and access to digital technology still remain an additional burden, on top of the socioeconomic constraints they face, but that the use of sociodigital devices in peer tutoring (video-conferencing, social networks) provides an added benefit in the tutoring relationship that is muchappreciated by students, because it helps prevent them from dropping out.