Abstract
The debates surrounding the effectiveness of teaching social work online highlight the challenges of adequately preparing students for face-to-face practice by way of web-based technologies. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to briefly describe how a particular School of Social Work when designing its part-time undergraduate degree program (BSW), arrived at a fork in the road and instead of choosing between the paths of in-class or online course delivery, the School decided to offer the entire degree using a blended learning platform. Secondly, to compare the development and implementation of three specific practice courses within the part-time degree program (interviewing and assessment, social work theory, and a practicum integration seminar) each of which was offered using blended learning. This paper contributes to the debate about the value of using web-based components when teaching social work practice and will be helpful to educators from within many disciplines, who are wishing to critique their own development processes when designing and teaching practice courses using blended learning.
Highlights
The debates surrounding the effectiveness of teaching social work online highlight the challenges of adequately preparing students for face-to-face practice by way of web-based technologies
The School is situated within a university that is world renowned for its co-operative education, and distance education (DE) programs and we were in an ideal milieu for considering webbased technologies for social work course delivery
It was suspected that applicants would already be working in demanding social work roles, such as child welfare and residential mental health treatment centres, but were seeking a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) to enhance their qualifications and improve their career trajectories
Summary
The debates surrounding the effectiveness of teaching social work online highlight the challenges of adequately preparing students for face-to-face practice by way of web-based technologies. To briefly describe how a particular School of Social Work when designing its part-time undergraduate degree program (BSW), arrived at a fork in the road and instead of choosing between the paths of in-class or online course delivery, the School decided to offer the entire degree using a blended learning platform. This paper contributes to the debate about the value of using net-based technologies when teaching social work practice and will be helpful to educators from within many disciplines, who are wishing to critique their own development processes when designing and teaching practice courses using blended learning. How could we make the part-time program accessible to non-mainstream students using off campus online course delivery without compromising their practice skill development and the overall effectiveness of the BSW program?
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