Student mentoring success with Vygo

The number of commencing students using the Vygo mentoring app in Semester 2 has increased consistently each week, and early feedback is positive.

Introduced this July by the Student Transition and Retention (STAR) team within Global and Education Pathways, the Vygo platform enables senior students from the Connect2Uni and Student Veteran programs to deliver online mentoring and on-campus activities for commencing students.

Research into the transition to higher education often finds peer-to-peer support as the single most effective strategy for increasing student retention and student satisfaction. Such mentoring programs have been implemented at most universities and are an essential feature of best-practice transition programs, and now ACU students are benefitting.

From 4 August to 31 October, the total number of students using Vygo for the Connect2Uni program has grown by 361 per cent to 270, while the total number of mentees has increased by 544 per cent to 240. A total of 20 students are currently taking advantage of Student Veteran mentoring, and three students have signed on as mentors.

Students can choose a mentor who’s right for them based on their interests and what course they’re studying. Once students match with a mentor, they can connect via live chat and organise on-campus sessions or a video call – making it simpler to connect.

Semester 2 commencing students have been positive about their peer-to-peer engagements. These have included one-to-one and group mentoring sessions, as well as social events and workshops run in collaboration with Student Life, the Academic Skills Unit, Counselling and PASS leaders.

Donni, a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) student in Melbourne, said, “I think that tips and tricks from a senior student are so meaningful for a new student like me. She could relate to my frustrations and she shared her study strategy which I haven’t thought of before.”

A student attending a ‘Find a Friend’ group event shared, “The session was great to meet and hang out with two of the student mentors in a very relaxed environment as well as have any questions I had answered.”

Meanwhile Miho, a Bachelor of Education (Primary) student at Strathfield, said, “Lana’s always comprehensive and thorough in her sessions, and is really great at addressing questions I have. The sessions also encourage other people to share tips and I’ve written down some things to try when it comes to studying techniques, battling procrastination, and planning for the rest of this semester and uni in general!”

ACU’s peer-to-peer mentoring program aims to increase student satisfaction by creating a range of student activities that will support them through the three distinct phases of their study with mentoring, tutoring, and community-building programs. It is being rolled out in three phases:

• Phase 1: Pre-enrolment and early offer acceptance (November 2021 – February 2022)
• Phase 2: Pre-census student engagement and university life transition (February – March 2022)
• Phase 3: Post-census transitioning to BAU support programs (April – June 2022)

Image: Students can choose a mentor who’s right for them based on their interests and what course they’re studying.