An Online Self-Coaching Programme: Towards Facilitating Self-Regulated Learning of Social Work Students within an ODL Context

Abstract

Studying social work, a profession, within an open and distant learning (ODL) context facilitates equal opportunities as it gives more and previously deprived students the opportunity to become social workers. The Department of Social Work at the University of South Africa (Unisa) became aware of the need for social work-specific student support, taking into account the difficulty of studying a profession in an ODL context. A qualitative research study in 2010 explored the specific support needs for social working students studying at Unisa. Rothman and Thomas’s Intervention Design and Development (IDD) model (1994) was adapted to develop an online self-coaching programme. The goals of this programme are to enhance student success and throughput, to accelerate personal, academic and professional development of students, and to empower students to take ownership of their learning process. As such, the programme facilitates self-regulated learning. The aim of this article is to indicate the support needs of social work students studying in an ODL context and to introduce the reader to the online self-coaching programme which was developed in response to these needs whilst highlighting its benefits and challenges.