Transcript A study of social presence in blended social work education

A study of social presence in
blended social work education
Professor Walter LaMendola, PhD
University of Denver
Council On Social Work Education
(USA)
• focus on e-learning & practice
• a special national project
• a subject of significance
to the US social work profession
Components of Our Project
• Comparing different forms of social work
practice class delivery
• Faculty development process
• Organizational requirements for social
work e-learning programming
• Measures of student information literacy
• Measures of student learning outcomes
Presentation Today
• Introduce conceptual model
• Examine our study of social work elearning in terms of
– the development of social presence
– community of inquiry
– and communities of practice related to the
student's field experience.
• Present preliminary data
Elements of an Educational Experience, Figure 1 from L. Rourke, et. al. (2001)
Assessing Social Presence In Asynchronous Text-based Computer Conferencing,JDE.
Intersection of Community of
Inquiry and Practice
• Community of Inquiry: Critical thought
about practice takes place
• Community of Practice: Human values and
ethics in action situate theory
Community
of
Inquiry
Community
of
Practice
Stephen Powell (2007)
Practical learning
From: Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T. (2004) e-Learning in the 21st Century, p 57.
Communities of Practice
Groups of people who share a concern, a
set of problems, or a passion about a
topic, and who deepen their knowledge
and expertise in this area by interacting on
an ongoing basis
From: Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002) Cultivating Communities of
Practice, p. 4
From Wenger (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning as a social system
Practices Learning
From Andrew Cox (2005) What are communities of Learning? Journal of Information Science 31,6, p 529
Practical learning pre-senses
From: Garrison, D.R. (2006) ONLINE COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY REVIEW: SOCIAL, COGNITIVE, AND
TEACHING PRESENCE ISSUES DRAFT
Community*
Range Mean
Median S.D.
All participants (N = 89)
Connectedness
Learning
Community
*As
28 26.71
31 29.84
56 56.55
measured by the Rovai Classroom Community Scale (2002)
28 7.029
31 6.765
58 12.681
Community /Social Sense
• Classroom experience demands reflection
and reflexivity, which is
• Based on social and intellectual needs and
interactions of practitioners and students,
who are
• An embodied practice community that
situate shared values and ethics
Community is
social
Social
Presence
• Community is
emotive; affective
bonding (Etzioni)
• A sense of “being
there”, being
situated, embodied
• Forms social
identity
• A social context that
includes cues, nonverbal expressions,
movements
Creating Social Presence
•
How do we vary social presence in social work
education to support practitioner development?
Opportunities of self disclosure
Spontaneity and humor
Creating awe
Expressing emotions
Forms of discussion
•
Who are our community members becoming; how are
their practice identities formed? Field Integration
Seminar included
Measuring Social Presence
• Analysis of classroom discussions
– Coding for social presence (Garrison et al)
• Richardson & Swan (2003) measure
• Short, Christie, & Williams (1976) measure
• Student and faculty interviews
Social Presence
– Short et al (1976)
– Studies have shown it to be robust in
measuring social presence (Biacco et al
2004)
– Semantic differential
– Warm, Sensitive, Large, Beautiful, Personal,
Colorful, Open, Active, Sociable
Social Presence
Face to face
Blended
Blended
Field
Mean
5.34
4.32
5.43
Preliminary discussion analysis
• Blended field more comments by students
• Blended field lengthier comments by
students
• Students comments affective
Sample of Qualitative Results
•
–
•
–
What is their perception of their learning?
“The field experience was the most beneficial to me ...having
other students share their experience...The field instructor had a
lot of experience that she was able to share with us. It is hard to
pass up discussions... I do not think a student can get much out of
reading without experience and discussion with others... Forming
a sense of community, I learn better through experiential learning.”
Which aspects were most effective for facilitating social
presence?
“The field experience was the most beneficial, because it forced
me to get out and experience issues that I hadn't before... I
haven't taken the time to interact as much as I would like to but I
know that people would've been available for more interaction if
I'd taken the effort.
Possible future considerations
• More time in field based learning centers
• More student use of technology,
multimedia to communicate experience
and practical learning
• More co-teaching with field supervisors,
using video conferencing
• Courses offered from the field site