CAN SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE BE TAUGHT EFFECTIVELY ONLINE? A COMPARISON OF THE LEARNING OUTCOMES BETWEEN AN ONLINE AND FACE TO FACE GENERALIST SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE COURSE

Increasingly Graduate Schools of Social Work within the United States are developing online courses and programs to reach students who may have difficulty attending a traditional face to face program due to their geographical location or time constraints. A particular challenge facing online programs in social work is how to effectively teach practice and demonstrate the students have achieved the necessary knowledge and skill competencies when working with individuals, families and groups. This paper will describe the online asynchronous and synchronous methods used to teach students how to engage both voluntary and involuntary clients; how to conduct an assessment of their individual family and environmental issues; and how to formulate an intervention plan that addresses these needs. It will also report on the results of a study that compared the knowledge and skill acquisition of students participating in this online generalist practice class to the students in the corresponding face to face course taught by the same instructor during the same time period. A survey was administered to both sets of students at the end of their course, in which they were asked about the extent to which they thought the learning objectives were achieved and to assess the quality of the learning environment. In addition, unobtrusive measures, administered as part of the requirements for the class, were analyzed anonymously as part of the outcome comparison. These measures included the overall grades achieved in each of the sections and the scores obtained on the rubrics for each of the major written assignments submitted for the class. Data from both groups have been collected and are currently in the process of being analyzed. Preliminary results will be reported at the time of the presentation.