Developing Hybrid Digital Mentorship Models and Micro-Credentialing: A Framework For Professional Excellence and Burnout Prevention

Abstract

Despite the benefits of mentoring programs, numerous studies have revealed that traditional mentorship programs often encounter difficulties and fail to meet the needs of all educators, resulting in teacher burnout and reduced opportunities for professional excellence. (Gobena, 2022, Monir and Amin, 2018). These challenges include unclear expectations for mentees, a lack of motivation among mentors, limited feedback exchange and poor-quality guidance. Indeed, educators may be reluctant to provide constructive criticism because they are worried about projecting a positive image or being completely open about the current state of the mentoring relationship. Micro-credentials exhibit significant promise with the rise of professional learning strategies for educators. Micro-credentialing and mentorship models together set a learning course that is personalized, relevant, result-oriented, unbiased, scalable, and flexible (Almond, 2020). Therefore, to fulfill the study’s aim, conventional mentorship challenges are addressed to illuminate a transformative change in the hybrid digital mentorship model program and micro-credentialing via Moodle practiced in the contemporary world. A mixed-method design is employed to explore the depth and diversity of experiences. The quantitative data is collected from 50 male and female participants across different colleges and universities in Muscat using the 5-Likert type scale questionnaire, focusing on the following key dimensions: perceptions of micro-credentials, quality of digital mentorship, the usability of Moodle, professional excellence, and burnout prevention. Additionally, the qualitative data consists of open-ended responses, which investigate the mentors’ and mentees’ views on the most vital concerns of mentoring for the effectiveness of the practices. The researchers provided the Participants with an information sheet detailing the study’s purpose, voluntary participation, and assurance of confidentiality and anonymity. This study contributes to the understanding of digital mentorship dynamics and the utilization of collaboration platforms and communication tools to provide insights for enhancing mentorship practices and outcomes via micro-credentialing.