The purpose of this paper is to report on a research project concerning a web-based (online) course for mentors of newly qualified teachers (NQTs). Research on mentor education in general is actually quite sparse (cf. Iucu & Stingu, 2013; Wang & Odell, 2002). In an overview of mentor education for mentors of NQTs (Aspfors & Fransson, re-submitted), it was found that only ten articles had been published on the subject in peer-reviewed scientific journals and that only two of them focused on mentor education facilitated by web-based software, technologies and pedagogies (McCrary & Mazur’, 2008; Sinclair, 2003). In this study, a mixed-method approach of questionnaires and interviews was used to collect the data. The major benefits of the web-based mentor course were found to be that it (a) facilitates distance studies, (b) allows people to study at their own pace, (c) makes it possible to listen to the recorded web-based lectures more than once, and (d) facilitates reflection. The initial technical concerns and discomfort with web-based interaction was mainly overcome during the course. The conclusions are that mentor-related content can be mediated in web-based form, that the teaching of such a course requires competence in mentoring and in the design and facilitation of online learning and the ability to deal with technical challenges that arise.

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