Bringing Social Work Education to the Prairie

Open and Distance Learning in Qualifying Social Work Education in Britain and the USA: Celebrating Diversity and Difference?

“…Results from this study indicated a high degree of student satisfaction with course teaching and learning opportunities. There were strikingly few differences in terms of student satisfaction between campus and distance instruction, while student evaluations of the required courses were remarkably similar overall (Haga & Heitkamp, 2000).…”

“…Distance learning social work students achieve equivalent grades compared to on-campus cohorts, as seen in many research studies (Haga & Heitkamp, 2000) while many evaluations by distance learning social work students indicate satisfaction levels at least equivalent to those obtained by traditional classroom teaching (Potts & O'Hagan, 2000). Furthermore, one study (McFall & Freddolino, 2000, p. 306) discovered that it was 'possible to implement a quality field instruction component in a distance [social work] education setting at least comparable to what was provided on campus and, in some cases, even better'.…”

“…For example, in the United States studies of distance learning, social work students have revealed that a very high proportion of such students are female, married (or divorced), older and more experienced in social work compared to their campus based counterparts (McFall & Freddolino, 2000). In fact, on one of the programmes, in one study, all the graduates were female (Haga & Heitkamp, 2000). Furthermore, distance learning programmes in social work in one study in Canada were perceived by women to involve fewer demands and to be less stressful generally than for their female counterparts on campus based programmes (Home, 1997).…”

“…A criticism raised by several writers has been that while open and distance learning is effective in providing and transmitting knowledge, it may be less effective in helping students learn about practice skills (Cornwell, 1998;Haga & Heitkamp, 2000;Siegel et al, 1998). For instance, there are only limited opportunities available for most distance learning social work students in the UK to learn and practise interview skills on a distance learning programme, other than in their placement experiences.…”

Measuring MBA Student Learning: Does Distance Make a Difference?

“…This research has consistently shown that regardless of discipline (e.g., library science, social work, physical therapy, management education, etc. ), there are no significant differences in the learning outcomes of students enrolled in distance courses as compared to traditional face-to-face classroom settings (Haga and Heitkamp, 2000;Levine, 2001;Mulligan and Geary, 1999;O'Hanlon, 2001;Ponzurick, France, and Logar, 2000;Weigel, 2000;Worley, 2000). Several other authors have found no significant differences in student satisfaction (Arbaugh 2000c;Phillips and Peters, 1999;Baldwin, Bedell and Johnson, 1997) or participation rates (Arbaugh, 2000a;2000b), for distance courses compared to face-to-face courses.…”