The pilot phase of the Match the Mentor platform took place in November and December in schools in four countries: 1o Peiramatiko Gymnasio Athinas (Greece); ASDPESO – Colégio João Paulo II (Portugal); Gymnasiale Oberstufe SZ CvO (Germany); and IPSSEOA Pietro Piazza (Italy).
The agenda was as follows:
- LOOP project overview, with presentation of the Match the Mentor platform;
- Viewing tutorials for mentors and mentees;
- Registration on the platform;
- Experimenting with the platform;
- Q&A session and opening for feedback from participants.
Overall, the teachers were enthusiastic about the platform, interested in exploring all its features, and expressed the possibility of joining the induction and mentoring programs designed by the consortium in different EU countries.
Evaluation Report reveals that the platform is useful and user-friendly
The evaluation report of the Match the Mentor platform, carried out as part of the piloting sessions – through a questionnaire given to 6 teachers from each school – 4 at the beginning of their career and 2 more experienced – revealed, at this stage, the following strengths:
- It is considered useful and functional;
- It offers various possibilities for communication and content sharing;
- The design is appealing and the working environment is pleasant, as well as very enlightening;
- Teachers can exchange views with each other in an easy and innovative way.
Some suggestions for improvement were also made: - Be able to view messages from users who are not part of the list of teachers in its network or mentoring group;
- To have the possibility of uploading files in several formats;
- Reformulate some points of the registration form and make it less extensive.