Infusing Web-Based Content Centers into an M.S.W. Curriculum: A Faculty and Student Development Project

ABSTRACT

Web-based content centers are collections of scholarly digital resources that can be used to support learning in a variety of contexts. Through a recent pilot project, faculty created web-based content centers to support key curriculum areas of an M.S.W. program. Additionally the project aimed at developing technology skills of faculty designers and student users of course support materials. Positive student learning outcomes and increased faculty use of technology resulted. Project outcomes also included the building of virtual learning communities.     

Web-Based Education in the Human Services: Use of Web-Based Video Clips in Counselling Skills Training

SUMMARY

This use of web-based video clips for counsellor skills training is used in the Campus Alberta Applied Psychology Counselling Initiative which provides Master's-level counsellor education at a distance. The core counselling skills course is delivered through the Web using digital video clips of counselling skills demonstrations, chat room skills practice and weekly discussion forums. A follow-up face-to-face Summer Institute allows learners to receive live feedback on their skill development. Course content is grounded in the construct of the working alliance (Bordin, 1979). Course activities use Bloom's taxonomies of learning objectives. Program evaluation suggests that learners are meeting competencies as they move from this course to practicum placements.     

Engaging Students in a Virtual Classroom: The Use of Bulletin Boards in Teaching and Learning for Chinese Learners

ABSTRACT

Chinese learners, being influenced by Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC), exhibit unique perceptions and behaviors in a web-based learning environment, such as passivity in expressing opinions and uncertainty about their learning without a teacher's assurance. Findings in this paper reflect such influences in a web-based social policy course for Chinese students which made extensive use of bulletin board discussion. In addition, their involvement in it is associated with how they feel about teachers' concern about their learning and whether expectations and assignments are clear. The paper recommends ways to improve web-based teaching and to facilitate Chinese learners in this new learning environment.     

Souls on Ice: Incorporating Emotion in Web-Based Education

SUMMARY

Emotions have been neglected in education and online education, in favor of a heavy emphasis on cognition and rationality. This article explores the significance of emotion in learning and how recent research is identifying some pathways and dynamics in the way emotions impact on learning and on web-based learning. Online learners have not been considered as “emotional beings” and web-based education has not addressed this dimension in any significant way. A constructivist, emotionally-oriented (CEO) model of web-based education is introduced which emphasizes safety, challenge, and new thinking, and offers several strategies to enhance the emotional experience of learners.     

Teaching Social Work Research: A Comparison of Web-Based and In-Class Lecture Methods

ABSTRACT

Like many other disciplines, Social Work education programs are increasingly including on-line classes in course offerings. Despite the rapid and widespread proliferation of web-based courses there is little data in the social work literature to inform educators about this teaching methodology. Using a quasi-experimental design this study examines the performance of 73 MSW students on objective measures of learning in a social work research course. Findings reveal that performance of students in lecture only and lecture with Blackboard supplement sections of the course was significantly better than performance of students in the on-line course.     

Building a Predominantly Web-Based Course from Face-to-Face and Interactive Video Pilots: Administrative Skills for Social Work Practice

SUMMARY

This paper describes the design, development, pilot, and revision of a predominantly web-based macro social work practice course on administrative skills required for all MSW students at Michigan State University, a Research I, land grant university. The course was intentionally developed in stages, first in a face-to-face (F2F) and interactive video (ITV) setting and then predominantly online after content revision and update. The course uses streamed videotaped lectures as a central teaching format, with extensive use of discussion boards and other interactive tools. The contributions made by the F2F and ITV iteration will be highlighted, along with lessons learned from multiple online replications.     

Facilitating Online Learning Communities: A Comparison of Two Discussion Facilitation Techniques

ABSTRACT

The advent of the twenty-first century has brought a proliferation of web-based courses in higher education. While prior studies have examined the comparability of online and traditional courses, a better understanding of effective pedagogical strategies to enhance online learning is needed. This study compared two distinct approaches to facilitating discussions in relation to participation rates, interaction patterns, depth of cognitive processing, and learning outcomes in two sections of an online course. Significant differences were found between sections (N = 41) in the frequency and types of interaction among students as well as in learning outcomes.     

Culturally responsive online design: learning at intercultural intersections

Abstract

This article presents evidence-based guidelines to inform culturally responsive online learning design in higher education. Intercultural understanding is now a recognised core learning outcome in a large majority of Canadian public universities; however, supporting design methodology is underdeveloped, especially in online contexts. Our search for valid intercultural learning design criteria began with two questions: What is the research evidence for learning design practices that support intercultural learning? In what ways do current course design rubrics address intercultural learning? For answers, first we explored recent literature reviews, articles, books, professional discourse on cultural aspects of learning, and the related internationalisation and Indigenous literatures on formal learning. Next, we examined three course design rubrics commonly used in Canada to identify practice supports and gaps in relation to the literature. Various research-indicated supports are present in these rubrics; however, major gaps include critical and holistic pedagogies, explicit intercultural learning outcomes, and intentional diversity group work. The proposed guidelines synthesise key research-indicated supports for intercultural learning and show how they can be integrated in core online course design components. The guidelines present a base for online design methodology to support intercultural learning and enable formative evaluation of pedagogy, learning activity and assessment applications.     

Translating Research into Practice: The Role of Web-Based Education

SUMMARY

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) constitute a major focus of recent efforts to narrow the gap between research and practice. However, CBGs cannot effectively change clinical practice unless they are effectively disseminated. The present article describes a web-based course designed to teach nurses about a CPG for the management of alcohol withdrawal. In it, we outline the details of our web-based course, including its technical characteristics, organization, structure, and clinical content. Next, we outline several adjunctive strategies that may improve the effectiveness of such web-based educational interventions. Finally, we discuss other ways that web-based education may prove useful in disseminating evidence-based practices in human service delivery settings.     

Successful Distance Learning Graduate Education in Human Services

SUMMARY

There is a critical learning process unique to graduate human services education. This process needs to be applied in the distance-learning environment. The planning and designing of course material, along with instructional strategies, need to incorporate the five phases of this learning process. Faculty who use this process to develop and deliver their distance programs will utilize the technology and educational environment of distance learning to the fullest. This paper gives readers the framework for designing human services courses so that graduate students benefit from the structure and presentation of course material in the unique environment of distance learning.     

Working Across the Disciplines/Shifting Perspectives: Student Experiences with an Online Course Focused on Interdisciplinary Practice with Children and Families

SUMMARY

As more universities and other places of higher learning respond to the changing needs of the community-bound learner, new technologies are being harnessed to shift the delivery of historically “classroom-bound” programs to alternate and more universally accessible formats. This article describes how an online course uses interactive exercises to engage students in mutual exploration of cross and/or interdisciplinary work. The course serves students from various professional schools, including social work, child and youth care, nursing, and education. Through the use of online discussion and case-study role-plays, it facilitates an experiential learning environment that is reflective of the student's own practice in a learning setting.     

The Virtual Community: Computer Conferencing for Teaching and Learning Social Work Practice

SUMMARY

This author describes the use of a web-based conferencing program to augment classroom learning in generalist social work practice courses in a BSW program. This “virtual classroom” allows students to have more or less continual access to the instructor and to each other, greatly expanding opportunities for teaching, learning, and communication.     

Translating knowledge into practice: using simulation to enhance mental health competence through social work education

ABSTRACT

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators to enhance competencies in students during the social work program. Guided by competency- and simulation-based, adult learning frameworks, this paper illustrates the development and integration of a range of educational activities into a treatment-focused advanced mental health course in the social work curriculum. We conclude by discussing how SBL enhances students’ mental health competence and provide recommendations when developing SBL in the mental health curriculum in social work education.     

Teaching without being taught how: social work practice faculty voices

ABSTRACT

Social work practice faculty have an important role in socializing MSW students to the field and practice of social work. This study, based on interviews with 15 faculty teaching an advanced clinical practice course in the United States, examines how faculty conceptualize teaching and learning. Faculty were asked about the theories or frameworks that guided their teaching, their own journeys to teaching and the resources that support their teaching. The study found that participants drew largely on their own experiences as student learners and social work practitioners and did not have much formal training in teaching and student learning. Furthermore, while half of the participants were able to identify a learning theory that guided their teaching, the other half were not. Finally, while participants articulated the need for support regarding their own teaching, many of the schools did not have formal faculty development opportunities. The paper ends with recommendations for supporting current and new faculty regarding teaching and student learning.     

An Intergenerational Journey to Remember

Abstract

With help from a grant from the Corporation for National Service, service learning was infused into four classes of a graduate gerontology course, Aging Well. Thirty-one students were paired with 31 older adults for a period of up to twenty hours. The impact on the emotional and social wellness of the older adults was assessed through student journals, electronic e-mail reflection, and the administration of a survey to older adults. Analysis indicated that the service provided to the older adults had a positive impact on their emotional and social wellness.     

Going the Distance: Using Technology in Human Services Education

SUMMARY

Learning objects are bite-sized digital learning resources designed to tackle the e-learning adoption problem by virtue of their scale, adaptability, and interoperability. The learning object approach advocates the creation of small e-learning resources rather than whole courses: resources that can be mixed and matched; used in a traditional or online learning environment; and adapted for reuse in other discipline areas and in other countries. Storing learning objects within a subject specific digital repository to enable search, discovery, sharing and use adds considerable value to the model. This paper explores the rationale for a learning object approach to e-learning and reflects on early experiences in developing a national learning object repository for social work education in Scotland.     

All Aboard the Runaway Technology Train: Adjust the Engine Speed or Die

ABSTRACT

Quality distance education cannot be accomplished without a critical discussion of the tools, which make it possible. This article is a case study of a course in which interactive condensed video technology was used to join two classrooms with the use of feminist and other participatory pedagogues. It includes suggestions on how to use the technology to promote interaction and a discussion of the tradeoffs of using distance learning technology.     

Implementing web-assisted learning and engaging academic staff in the change process

Abstract

In achieving the transition from a traditional taught mode of delivery to web-assisted learning, the management of universities now realise that change needs to be led and managed from the top down. They are also reliant on academic staff to engage in the change process. These two aspects are investigated in the context of a post-1992 university, which recently introduced a virtual learning environment (VLE) as part of a managed learning environment (MLE). Academic staff perceptions are explored within the framework of the 4-E model of staff engagement with technological change, but findings indicate a lack of evidence to support the 4-E balanced equation or likelihood-of-use factor.     

A Transdisciplinary Approach to Teacher Preparation: Providing Equitable Access for All Students to Learn Social Studies Content,Skills, and Processes

Abstract

Contextualized in the critical pedagogies of universal design for learning (UDL) and social justice education, our study aimed to equip teacher candidates (TCs) to provide students with equitable access to learning social studies content knowledge, skills, and processes as a way to equally empower all students to be civically engaged, and thus to disrupt the social reproduction of empowering privileged students and disempowering marginalized ones in the public schools. An earlier study indicated that our TCs did not transfer or generalize the UDL framework from foundation courses to subsequent classes or in practice. This case study describes how and in what ways elementary education faculty used a transdisciplinary approach, integrating the UDL framework taught in the foundation’s course into a social studies methods course to facilitate TCs’ continued learning and application of theory into practice. The results of this case study suggest that TCs that TCs had not yet internalized the UDL framework or critical consciousness and that these must be intentionally transferred and generalized to new coursework by the faculty on a consistent, ongoing basis.     

Assessing Impact of Service-Learning Project on Older,Isolated Adults in Rural America

ABSTRACT

With help from a grant from the Corporation for National Service, service learning was infused into four classes of a graduate gerontology course, Aging Well. Thirty-one students were paired with 31 older adults for a period of up to twenty hours. The impact on the emotional and social wellness of the older adults was assessed through student journals, electronic e-mail reflection, and the administration of a survey to older adults. A quantitative assessment of the older adults was attempted using the Life Satisfaction in the Elderly Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Analysis indicated that the service provided to the older adult had a positive impact on their emotional and social wellness.