A mentor is assigned to each student for the duration of the NetMath course. The mentor's job is to assist the student with day-to-day coursework.
Why does NetMath have mentors?
Mentors are here to help you succeed in your course. Through two decades of experimentation with online mathematics pedagogy we have found that our faculty allot much time to the development and maintenance of our courses and to the supervision of the mentors. To support the growing number of students enrolled in NetMath, we turned to graduate students, the faculty's soon-to-be colleagues, to assist in the teaching of our courses. These master's and Ph.D. candidates are experienced Illinois TAs.
As our program grew in size, certain tasks, such as grading and answering the less complex questions, required us to recruit top undergraduate students to assist you. More importantly, you will benefit from having one individual whom you can contact for help. This innovation is so successful that it has materialized into the concept of the NetMath Mentor.