This article reports findings from a study initiated to explore similarities and differences in the acquisition of interviewing skills of two groups of students enrolled in a required undergraduate social work practice course. One group was taught interviewing skills in a classroom-based teaching environment by one instructor and the other group was taught interviewing skills in an online instructional environment by a different instructor. Results indicate no statistically significant difference in actual skill acquisition at the completion of the course between students in both groups as rated by an independent expert evaluator. Future research direction is recommended.

The Acquisition of Social Work Interviewing Skills in a Web-Based and Classroom Instructional Environment: Results of a Study

Digital equipment and devices have become most essential tools for disseminating knowledge in educational institutions. The use of such equipment has now become more effective with the inclusion of contents available in the Internet. All of these tools and means have created a great opportunity for spreading teaching and learning in distance educational mode. But for a developing country, the main hindrances for spreading distance education are the cost of the equipment and availability of Internet access over all parts of the country. A research has been carried out on how the cost of useful digital gadgets and their accessories can be brought down to an affordable price and how the access to the Internet can be made easy for the students in general. This paper starts with the description of the challenges for reaching the objectives and then it explains how they are overcome by different indigenous technical solutions. Moreover, work on how the power requirement for the commonly used digital equipment has been minimized is reported in the paper. Finally it shows the techniques of applying solar power to supply the energy requirement for the gadgets to be used for distance learning. This has made a break through in education sector for a vast community in developing countries.

The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning

Given the growing prevalence of technology-based instruction, social work faculty need a clear understanding of the strengths and limitations of these methods. We systematically examined the evidence for technology-based instruction in social work education. Using comprehensive and rigorous methods, 38 articles were included in the review. Of these, 23 employed Web-based strategies, 12 employed interactive television-based strategies, and three combined both methods. Among the studies, there was a wide range of samples, content areas, measures, and data analyses. Results found that 84.2% of the studies reported that technology-based pedagogical methods produced academic outcomes equivalent or superior to traditional methods. Despite limitations, this body of evidence supports the continued use of technology in social work education as an alternative to classroom education. Future directions include the need for higher quality research and further investigations of specific issues relating to conte...

Technology in Social Work Education: A Systematic Review.

This exploratory research compares longitudinal research self-efficacy and retention between a completely asynchronous Master of Social Work (MSW) online cohort and its traditional face-to-face counterpart. This study used a non-equivalent comparison groups design with two groups: online instruction only (n=16) and traditional face-to-face instruction (n=32), with pretest (Time 1), posttest (Time 2) and follow-up (Time 3) standardized measures of practice evaluation knowledge (PEKS) and research self-efficacy (RSES) in a beginning research methods course. Results indicate that students’ knowledge and research self-efficacy improved between pretest and posttest and remained significantly improved at follow-up one year later, with no significant difference between online learners and traditional face-to-face students. Students gain and maintain confidence in research methods and evaluation regardless of the learning platform utilized.

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Longitudinal Student Research Competency: Comparing Online and Traditional Face-to-Face Learning Platforms

The findings of a study that examined students' reports about their experience with ITV are presented. The results are based on two different courses with different instructors and different composition of students. Results show that students in both sites report that the use of technology does not compromise their learning but they dislike it. Strategies for future research to understand the nature of the reaction are suggested.

Videoconferencing: A Viable Teaching Strategy for Social Work Education?

This study compares 52 on-campus and 26 distance education (DE) MSW students enrolled in two practice methods courses. This is a partial replication study, describing the results of the evaluation of the second cohort of a large DE program. The results from the first cohort are reported elsewhere (Kleinpeter & Potts, 2000). The DE students were located at four universities linked through interactive television (ITV). The comparison group was located at an urban university, taught in traditional classrooms. Comparisons were made on student grades, faculty evaluations, and field instructors' evaluations. Results indicate that no significant differences were found between on-campus and DE students which supports the findings of the first cohort, despite a reduction in faculty visits to off-campus locations, a greater use of ITV instruction, and an increased reliance on the use of local site coordinators as assistant instructors in the classroom.

Christine B. Kleinpeter Msw

Papers

Teaching Practice Methods Using Interactive Television: A Partial Replication Study