An Analysis of Learning Outcomes in a Freshman Seminar Learning Community that Utilizes Peer Mentoring at a Community College

While there has been research on the effects of utilizing Peer Mentors within Learning Communities with regards to retention data, little research has been done to show the effects that Peer Mentoring has on learning outcomes within a Learning Community. Using anecdotal evidence from peer mentors working within a Learning Community at an urban community college, we describe the effects that individual mentors have had on individual first-semester students. For a preliminary quantitative analysis, a pre post survey was given to two groups of Learning Community students, one group which had peer mentors attached to their Learning Communities (PMLC), and one which did not (non-PMLC). Using an independent t-test, we were able to show that there were some improvements in familiarity from pre to post in both groups and that, in some cases, the PMLC group showed greater improvement than the non-PMLC group, the results were not statistically significant