The Use of a Formative Pedagogy Lens to Enhance and Maintain Virtual Supervisory Relationships: Appreciative Inquiry and Critical Review.

Background: Virtual supervisory relationships provide an infrastructure for flexible learning, global accessibility, and outreach, connecting individuals worldwide. The surge in web-based educational activities in recent years provides an opportunity to understand the attributes of an effective supervisor-student or mentor-student relationship.

Objective: The aim of this study is to compare the published literature (through a critical review) with our collective experiences (using small-scale appreciative inquiry [AI]) in an effort to structure and identify the dilemmas and opportunities for virtual supervisory and mentoring relationships, both in terms of stakeholder attributes and skills as well as providing instructional recommendations to enhance virtual learning.