Abstract:

The Covid 19 pandemic has been one of the most significant and disruptive events of the 21st century. While many environments (e.g., businesses, health care) needed to react quickly and transition from in-person settings to remote work, it was particularly challenging for higher education and required many faculty to immediately switch from classroom teaching to virtual instruction. Some departments had already begun this shift from in-person to remote learning while others were forced to react quickly to salvage the semester mid-way through. Regardless of the circumstances then, it appears that instructors in higher education must face the permanence of these modalities. Further, on-line education creates unique challenges in the ways that social science professors address the various domains of learning.

Bloom’s taxonomy proposes three learning domains of learning: cognitive, affective, and kinetic/psychomotor (Bloom, 1956). While translating cognitive knowledge is rather simple, the bigger challenge is translating affective and kinetic learning from in-person experiences to those on-line. Affective leaning involves students’ attitudes, values, and emotional connection to the material and fellow classmates. For example, in counseling, how do students understand, value, and intervene while sitting with a suicidal client? Kinetic learning focuses on specific skills and behaviors such as demonstrating effective therapeutic communication techniques. How do programs continue to provide virtual opportunities for students to experience these affective aspects of counseling? Further, how do programs continue to create space for students to practice and demonstrate effective counseling skills?

In 2019, The Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance and Quality Matters group assembled a committee of experts; this National Standards for Quality (NSQ) team created best practices for on-line courses. These best practices include six standards for the development of on-line courses (NSQ, 2019). Two of the standards involve instructional design and learner assessment. A key component of instructional design is creating leaner-content, learner-learner, and learner-instructor interactions. A vital element of learner assessment involves creating flexible assessment methods. This virtual workshop will discuss how our counselor training program addressed these two standards. The workshop will provide specific examples of how to translate emotional and kinetic learning experiences to an on-line environment. The presenters will share their experiences in creating on-line activities that ensure students have valuable interactions among themselves and with their instructors. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of student assessment strategies for a digital educational environment.

References:
[1] Bloom, B. S. (1956). "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain." New York: David McKay Co Inc.
[2] National Standards for Quality (NSQ) (2019). National standards for quality for on-line courses (3rd ed.) Retrieved from https://www.nsqol.org/the-standards/quality-online-courses/

Keywords:

On-line course development, affective learning, assessment.