The University of Georgia School of Social Work now offers the first fully online Master of Social Work degree in Georgia. The program was developed online to extend access to people interested in earning an advanced degree in direct social work practice while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. 

In order to achieve its vision of catering to the needs of online students and adult learners, MSW online faculty members enrolled in a new course, Facilitating Adult Learning Online. 

“The Facilitating Adult Learning Online course was designed so that professors could experience first hand what it’s like to take an online course while balancing a busy life, family, work and other responsibilities,” said UGA Online Learning Instructional Designer, Rachel Cassity. She designed the course to model best practices when teaching online and to show professors how instructors and students can maximize the potential of course tools and resources in UGA’s eLearning Commons.

When the faculty are put in the position of a student, they experience what may or may not be beneficial in their own online classes and are able to adapt their curriculum to reflect that. All nine professors teaching in the MSW Online program enrolled in the course and dedicated two hours per week to the four-week long class. 

These faculty are committed to making the best learning experience for their students, and their completion of this course reflects that. Taking time from their busy work schedules and personal lives, the professors worked through the course completing quizzes, participating in discussions, reading and turning in assignments for this course. 

“It’s different to come at the course from the perspective of a student than it is to see things from a designer side.” Kate Stahl, one of the nine MSW Online professors says, “Overall the course was a positive experience for me and was really helpful. I didn’t expect that I would get as much out of it as I did, and yet by engaging it I think that I have a lot better sense of how online teaching could go and how I might design a course.”

It is important to ensure that all of the virtual curricula are easy to follow, complete and allows for the best learning experience. By understanding what is required for the best learning experience, professors are able to provide better content and assignments. 

Accessibility for students was an important factor Sara Skinner, social work professor, considered after taking the Facilitating Online Learning course. One aspect of this was making sure that the videos and multimedia she created for her course are captioned and accessible for anyone in her class.

“There are important things that taking the online course made me think about so that I can go back and redesign my course and make it more accessible for all of my students,” Skinner says. 

Additionally, Professor Kate Stahl was able to see and experience many challenges that students might face in an online learning system and adapted her course to allow her students to make the most of this course. She has decided to reduce the number of deadline assignments to make the course workable for people who are really busy; she also noticed an increased potential for discussion boards which allows for students to reflect on their thoughts and relate deeply to the prompts.

The outcome of this Adult Learning course was positive overall and led to strategies for more effective online learning. Other MSW professors revised some of their online course content to better suit their students’ needs as well. Some of the most important aspects of a virtual course were improved such as: open and regular communication, accessibility, and consistency. In addition, they recognized the importance of building an online learning community for students in order for them to feel engaged within the course.