Mentee and mentor meet online through YouTube live.Photo provided by Office of Communications
Mentee and mentor meet online through YouTube live. Photo provided by Office of Communications.

 

Career Development Center (CDC) ran the annual Ewha Mentoring Day online for the first time due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.


Ewha Mentoring Day provides opportunities for students to build connections and get practical tips on jobs by inviting about 40 to 50 graduates from various fields as mentors during the recruitment season. Instead of holding an offline fair, CDC decided to utilize online streaming platforms and messenger services to hold the event remotely amid the virus. However, as the format was newly adopted, technical problems occurred.


Students expressed discomfort with the inconvenience of the unstable internet connection, errors on link delivery, and delays in instant messaging communication.


“The mentors and mentees met through YouTube live and there was an incident where we had to start over after 10 minutes because many people received the wrong link,” said Han Ji-su, a student from the Division of English Language and Literature, who participated as a mentee.


“During the Q&A sessions, there were no particular difficulties regarding the chatting speed, but there were some who could not receive answers due to lack of time.” Han added. “The mentor advised us to freely ask additional questions through Tok Tok, a platform through which students can communicate with the graduate mentors.”


Regarding the inconvenience, CDC replied that they tried to minimize the time difference between the senders and viewers by setting a short delay time in advance and used the messenger service to deliver important announcements quickly.


“This year, due to the exceptional case of COVID-19, we are successfully using the YouTube streaming and messenger platforms to plan and launch a new interactive program for employment support,” CDC explained. “Even though there is a possibility of the resurgence of the virus, we are planning on adjusting the program flexibility in the second semester.”


They added that the ‘untact’ employment method, a way of conducting the employment process without meeting in person, is spreading in both the domestic and foreign employment markets. Accordingly, the center will continue to provide optimized online service even after the threat of the virus for the convenience of Ewha students.


The center further explained that holding Ewha Mentoring Day online offered a number of advantages. According to CDC, students found the ease of accessibility to be the biggest advantage as they were able to save the time and effort of having to visit in person and listen to the mentoring on campus. By using time freely, students could focus more on the mentoring of the corporations they were interested in.


Han also said, "Apparently, there were also advantages of these online sessions such as fewer temporal and spatial constraints as well as being able to listen to the lecture again.”


Furthermore, the online messenger service increased interactions with the mentors. Students actively asked questions anonymously, which was more comfortable for them. Some students also mentioned that this active communication made Ewha Mentoring Day much more meaningful.

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