As educators with students around the nation, one often relies on partnerships with technology companies, community based agencies and other resources not located ‘down the hall’. This presentation will explore a strategic approach to support university partners through ongoing virtual professional development and collaborative trainings.
Distance education inherently implies students and faculty are spread far apart from the brick and mortar institution. There are often many employees working behind the scenes to make sure course material, course content, and classroom instruction are able to be consumed world wide. In social work education in particular, field education is as important as course material as it allows social work students to integrate social work theory into practice. (Wayne, Bogo & Raskin, 2006). In distance education similar to brick and mortar programs, field work happens in the students community at local agencies and are supervised by local MSW field instructors. The contribution of field Instructors has long been recognized as an essential component to student learning. Pierce (2008) defined the role of the field instructor to “connect the theoretical and conceptual contribution of the classroom with the practice world of the practice setting” (p. 2). Given the importance of the field instructor’s role, reinforcing the reciprocal relationship between the student, agency, and university is critical for students success.
Traditionally, social work programs utilize field instructor training workshops to ensure the quality of the field practicum experience in addition to serving as an opportunity to build rapport between the agency and social work program (Bogo 2005). However, this only provides initial education. In addition, participation in these trainings varies based on availability and convenience of the training schedule. Given the current political, social, and business climate in our society, it is critical for field instructors to receive ongoing opportunities to collaborate and discuss the core competencies of the social work profession and how to incorporate these competencies in student learning.
Through interactive technology, students now can engage in academic classes equivalent to brick and mortar institutions through distance learning. Students and faculty alike often chose this method of learning for convenience. Utilizing virtual platforms for ongoing field instructor and field faculty professional development has proven successful for one social work program. Research identifies utilizing a variety of delivery systems including asynchronous activities and synchronous live sessions as better engaging field instructors as it offers flexibility, individual pacing in addition to face to face interactions (Ayala et al 2014).
This presentation will introduce a collaborative approach to provide virtual professional development to field instructors which is an enhancement to the traditional field instructor training and helps to cultivate long term partnerships. Presenters will review field instructor opportunities that include specific virtual field content trainings on the core competencies consultation, problem solving of placement challenges, and sharing of best practices.