The Design, Implementation and Outcomes of a Mentoring Program

This paper reports on the design, implementation and outcomes of a mentoring program involving 18 employees in the IT Division of WorkCover Queensland. The paper provides some background information to the development of the program and the design and implementation phases including recruitment and matching of participants, orientation and training, and the mentoring process including transition and/or termination. The paper also outlines the quantitative and qualitative evaluation processes that occurred and the outcomes of that evaluation. Results indicated a wealth of positive individual, mentoring, and organisational outcomes. The organisation and semi-structured processes provided in the program are considered as major contributing factors to the successful outcomes of the program. These outcomes are likely to have long-term benefits for the individuals involved, the IT Division, and the broader organisation

Longitudinal Student Evaluations of a Postgraduate Unit Using Importance-Performance Analysis

The Australian tourism tertiary education sector operates in a competitive and dynamic environment, which necessitates a market orientation to be successful. Academic staff and management in the sector must regularly assess the perceptions of prospective and current students, and monitor the satisfaction levels of current students. This study is concerned with the setting and monitoring of satisfaction levels of current students, reporting the results of three longitudinal investigations of student satisfaction in a postgraduate unit. The study also addresses a limitation of a university’s generic teaching evaluation instrument. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) has been recommended as a simple but effective tool for overcoming the deficiencies of many student evaluation studies, which have generally measured only attribute importance or importance at the end of a semester. IPA was used to compare student expectations of the unit at the beginning of semester with their perceptions of performance ten weeks later. The first stage documented key benchmarks for which amendments to the unit based on student feedback could be evaluated during subsequent teaching periods.