Teaching Social Work in an Online Environment

Abstract

This article discusses the current debate surrounding online instruction (also known as distance) versus in-class social work instruction and reviews the relevant literature associated with those instructional models. The discussion specifically focuses on key issues, including the definition and growth of online education and the Blackboard revolution, and it addresses concerns about the effectiveness of teaching online compared to in-class social work instruction in areas related to students' learning outcomes and satisfaction. Literature references also suggest that factors such as demographics may be related to outcome differences between distance and traditional students, while others found no significant differences between both student populations and their learning outcomes in particular courses such as research methods courses. Even today, however, the comparisons between online and traditional courses are unsettled, and many questions remain about the appropriateness or usefulness of these models. Therefore, the debate will continue to lead to even larger disagreements between researchers and educators on both sides. The concern about the effectiveness of teaching in an online environment is still the main concern of educational models in general and of social work education in particular. Even deeper concerns are found among educators and scholars about the ethical issues surrounding the entire online education debate. DEFINITIONThe subject of online learning has been the topic of many debates over the past few years. These debates consider research that examines how this mode of education compares to the traditional learning environments or face-to-face classroom settings. Online services that employ educational technologies have become extremely popular in many fields of study, and the technological convenience removes many restrictions such as going to or attending classes at a set time (Jenkins, 2010).In the literature, the term distance education has been used interchangeably with online environment, web-based instruction, Internet-based instruction, and technology-based instructional environment, which all mean the use of the World Wide Web and advanced communication networks as a tool or even as a bridge to deliver educational and instructional materials to students (Westhuis, Ouellette, & Pfahler, 2006).In a simple definition, distance education is a formal learning based on student-teacher arrangement in an online environment, in which the student and teacher are separated by space

Faculty Perceptions of Online Teaching Effectiveness and Indicators of Quality

“…Other studies have focused on online teaching effectiveness, but these have been in other disciplines such as medical education [ 12 ] or focused on student perception of e-learning [ 13 ]. In a recent review, Zidan [ 14 ] states that there is a need for more qualitative studies to address the gap regarding the effectiveness of online learning.…”

A Reflection on Special Challenges and Amending Pedagogy in Clinical Social Work Practice Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Although online classes allow students and educators to have face-to-face interactions via a videoconferencing application, these interactions do not produce the same level of learning effects as those that are experienced in the classroom-based format (Davis et al, 2019 ; Groshong et al, 2013 ). Many educators and students have not been provided adequate training in using video applications (such as how to use breakout rooms for group discussions in the synchronous class session) or have not received adequate resources from their institutions (Zidan, 2015 ). Because students and educators are not in the same location and may not be competent in using video applications or other technology skills, major challenges related to the lack of social connection or feelings of spatial isolation have been reported by students in online classes (Sung & Mayer, 2012 ).…”

Online Teaching Effect Evaluation and Analysis Using Combined Weighting Technique

“…With the development and popularization of artificial intelligence technology, neural networks have overcome the limitations of the above methods through their characteristics, such as nonlinear processing, adaptive learning, and high fault tolerance [9]. Many scholars [10]. The concept of teaching satisfaction is an extension of the concept of customer satisfaction, and online teaching satisfaction is an important aspect to evaluate the quality of online teaching.…”