Benefits and Challenges of Online Education for Clinical Social Work: Three Examples

As growing numbers of social work programs offer online delivery of course content, the positive aspects described in the literature, such as student access and flexibility, as well as concerns about quality, instructor/student relationships, and academic honesty of students, need to be examined as they relate to clinical social work education (Pelech et al. 2013; Reamer 2013). Three examples of fully online courses offered to clinical social work students by an experienced clinician and online instructor are examined in the context of the benefits and challenges put forth in the literature. A foundation interviewing course, diagnostic assessment course, and course on social work with older adults with a service-learning component are described in terms of quality, comparison to face-to-face courses, advantages, and disadvantages. These examples illustrate that online courses which are strategically and rigorously developed are comparable to face-to-face courses in many ways, including activities, assignments, assessments, outcomes, student quality, and methods of addressing academic dishonesty. Yet, differences exist in quality and quantity of interaction and skill development. Methods of ensuring quality are explored, including intense instructor presence, real time meetings online, and well-formulated discussion questions that require students to interact with the material and each other in ways that are potentially more demanding and engaging than courses taught face-to-face. Further challenges of technology, class size and requirement of additional faculty time are discussed, as well as clinical content that is currently more appropriately taught with a face-to-face component.