Linking Social Work Students to the Wider World via an Asynchronous Learning Network

Abstract

Many course websites and much of the literature about them address the delivery of distance education. However, course websites are also useful for bringing the world to campus-based social work students, as well as for communicating between classes and making up for missed sessions. Course websites can incorporate synchronous or asynchronous features, but the latter are far more appropriate to social work education, because students face such diverse time demands from their field internships. Asynchronous websites permit students to access posted material whenever convenient, without having to mesh their schedules with those of faculty, fellow students, or others. These websites need not be elaboratethey need only to fit the course content they will contain. However, they must be technologically sophisticated enough to prepare students to use technology in their careers; and must also reflect social work values. These include requirements that websites are accessible to students regardless of disabling conditions and economic, geographic, and other forms of marginalization, facilitating more and more extensive interactions with policymakers, experts, and peers.