Peer mentors’ access to resources and efforts to provide support to first-year students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption in higher education, compelling universities to adopt emergency remote teaching and learning strategies. Lockdown forced a rapid shift to online platforms, new assessment forms, and digital communication tools. This transition especially affected first-year students, who were unfamiliar with university structures and lacked the psychosocial support typically available on campus. Universities were challenged to support these students in a remote environment. Before the pandemic, peer mentors offered face-to-face psychosocial support to first-year students. However, COVID-19 restrictions necessitated a move to online mentoring. This study explores how peer mentors adapted their support roles during the lockdown, focusing on their use of digital platforms to mentor first-year students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. A mixed-method research design was adopted, involving an online survey and six focus group discussions with sixty-two peer mentors. The survey, distributed via Google Docs, gathered quantitative data, while qualitative data was obtained through online discussions held on Microsoft Teams. The study is grounded in the ethics of care and digital inequality theories, which provide a framework for understanding mentors’ access to resources and their ability to offer support. Findings show that despite limited access to resources, peer mentors demonstrated resilience and innovation in their efforts to provide psychosocial support. The peer mentors’ experiences underline the potential for leveraging existing social capital to enhance mentoring efforts. The study stresses the importance of recognizing and addressing digital inequalities while promoting caring and supportive relationships in higher education, particularly in times of crisis.