As universities continue to struggle with student retention, peer mentoring emerges as a promising solution for retaining online adult learners. From fostering community to boosting completion rates, our study unveils the power of connection in online education. Let’s dive into the findings and unlock the key to student persistence!

Topic A wealth of research suggests several factors influence the persistence of adult online learners, to include support from family, organizations, and employers, perceived relevance of coursework to career, and satisfaction with structure and content of coursework. Research also suggests that adult learners have similar expectations regarding collaborative learning and knowledge-sharing in their online courses as they do for their face-to-face courses. This emphasizes the importance of creating learning environments that are supportive and collaborative, which foster a sense of community among adult online learners. Online peer mentoring emerges as a promising solution for enhancing a sense of belonging, improving motivation, and supporting study behavior among online adult learners. During this presentation you will hear about the impact of peer mentoring embedded in an online college preparation program designed for part-time adult learners. This self-paced program focuses on competency-based learning with content focused on college readiness, writing and communication skills, and career and professional development. A thorough analysis compared outcomes of units with mentors and those without mentors. The results indicated that learners with peer-mentors had significantly higher completion rates than learners without peer-mentors. These results were even more significant among students of color. The findings of this study underscore the effectiveness of online peer mentoring programs and have implications for higher education professionals responsible for online course design and student success programs. We invite you to our discussion about how to create and implement effective mentor programs. Together, we can build more engaged and supportive online environments for our adult learners. Level of Participation The Discovery Session is a great way of sharing our unique program and research outcomes through a meaningful dialogue with attendees who are interested in creating similar types of online mentor programs. This session type will allow us to provide a broad overview of our topic, followed by in-depth one-on-one conversations. Our presentation will include concise yet informative slides, visual graphs, handouts, and of course some fun SWAG. Outcomes Attendees will learn about (1) the impact of peer mentoring on online course completion rates, (2) implications of peer mentoring for diverse student populations, and (3) how to create successful online peer mentor programs.