Working with Your Mentor

If you are taking a course that is supported by a mentor/instructor, you will be assigned to a volunteer mentor. Mentors are very dedicated hams who have taken the course they mentor plus additional mentor training, and are usually very experienced in their topic. Some mentors were contributors to the development of their course(s). Mentors review and comment on the results of student activities, and are there to help their students with the course work when needed. They also keep track of their students' progress. Mentor/ student interaction is normally by email, but telephone contacts are also made when necessary.  

Please be aware that our Continuing Education Program mentors are volunteers.  Our mentors are providing support for your learning on their own time because of their interest and commitment to amateur radio.  They are interested in helping others gain more knowledge in content areas involved with amateur radio and they are interested in helping others get a solid foundation in the training needed to serve in an emergency communications response capacity.  They try to be as responsive as possible to students who may want, or need, to work at a different pace or tackle lessons in a different order than is expected in the course design, but they cannot always accommodate individual student requests. Please keep this in mind before making requests for special accommodation.

You will be communicating with your assigned mentor via email rather than through the on-line course platform.  A few days before the start of the course session you will receive an email from us providing you with the name of your assigned mentor and a contact email address. That is the email address for you to use. In most of the Continuing Education Program courses there are activities or exercises that must be completed as part of the course requirements.  These activities should be submitted directly to your assigned mentor at the email address provided.

Mentors are expected to get in contact with you within a few days after the course session begins.  If you have not heard from your mentor there may be a problem with communication or your mentor may be away for a brief period.  Please notify us at cce@arrl.org so we can follow up and determine what the situation is.  If at any time during your course session you lose communication with your mentor or have an issue that needs to be resolved, please contact us with a complete description of the problem so we can try to help you find a timely solution.

After you have finished the final course assessment, please let your mentor know. The mentor makes the decision on who has successfully completed the course. Mentors will enter their decisions into our system. If you have passed, you will be ‘graduated’ in a timely fashion.

For further information, e-mail your questions to cce@arrl.org.