A systemic mentoring model in computer science

In recent years, mentoring has been widely discussed as a highly effective technique to improve students' learning in all fields of science. In this paper, we present a systemic mentoring model that helps computer science students, in particular those at the early stage of their study, more effectively learn concepts, write better programs, and conduct quality projects. The model takes advantage of faculty mentors and undergraduate and graduate peer-mentors to establish early contacts with mentees and to maintain systemic mentoring through which both the mentee and peer-mentor will learn. The mentoring relationship between mentors and mentees is established early in the semester and will continue for as long as the need for such a relationship exists. A unique feature of this model is that the mentee-mentor role might be switched depending on the problem or concepts at hand.