We are actively working on developing and improving our online social work education! As a team, the MSW, BSSW, Field, and OSWSS work together to provide the best education and support possible to our students. Over the years, we have dedicated much time and resources to our online delivery option which allows students to complete their BSSW and MSW major courses online.

As part of this effort, the MSU Department of social work has an online education coordinator and an online committee. These folks are tasked with being ambassadors of online education in all their professional roles, up to date in online pedagogy and innovations, recommending future directions for online social work education, providing support and training for online instructors, and representing the Social Work Department university wide on matter of online education.

Online committee members:

Ann Obermann, LCSW, PhD, Assistant Professor, Online Coordinator & Online Committee Chair

“Online learning has opened a whole new world to my teaching and the way I interact with students! I love taking time to design my courses and make the precious time and space in an online course count. I especially like connecting with other online teachers to learn from them and create a larger online instructor community! Online learning challenges our current education system to be better and more equitable encouraging us to work together for tomorrow’s students!”

Online & Hybrid Development Analyst: Dr. Rebecca Cottrell

“I love that online teaching allows faculty to develop relationships with students even when their circumstances don’t allow them to attend a face-to-face class. There are so many creative ways to engage with content and build community in an online setting! We can expand equitable access to education in a way that meets the needs of diverse learners through online teaching.”

Affiliate Instructor Representative: Vacant

Online Student Representative: Vacant

MSW Cat II Representative: Adjoa Robinson, PhD, Social Work Lecturer

“Online delivery holds the potential for making higher education more broadly accessible.” – Dr. Robinson

Office of Social Work Student Service Representative: Melissa Gore
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” – R. Buckminster Fuller, author, inventor, architect, futurist.

Office of Field Services Representative: Ann Sullivan
“I have enjoyed being a member of the online committee for all that my colleagues have taught me about high quality online instruction. It is exciting to hear the ever-evolving approaches to engaging students in online learning and to challenge myself to continue to try on new approaches and technologies. I continue to grow and learn from the dedication of my online students who engage in deep reflection and learning within this platform. My students inspire me in my commitment to evolve and develop my online pedagogy.”

BSSW Faculty Representative: Amanda Marsh Baranski

MSW Faculty Representative: Kathryn Trujillo PhD

Dr. Kate Trujillo

“Online learning has opened so many doors in higher education that are life changing for students and graduates. I love connecting with students and the chance to build learning communities across Colorado, across work schedules, and across different life circumstances! Especially in the pandemic, online learning and communities have been critical to our ongoing growth!”

To read more about how online learning has changed the landscape of Social Work in Child Welfare specifically, check out our article!

MSW Faculty Representative: Christian Itin, PhD

MSW Cat II Faculty Representative: Perri Corvino, LCSW

“Online learning offers us so many opportunities to teach and learn in ways that are beyond traditional pedagogical methods.”

For more information about the faculty on this committee, please view the Faculty Directory: https://msudenver.edu/socialwork/facultystaff/facultydirectory/

Current undertakings of the online committee for quality improvement in online learning:

Purpose:

Canvas is new, the LMS is a different structure than Blackboard, students are expressing interest in having a common LMS experience, faculty are asking questions about what is expected, and we want to keep improving our online course experience! So, we would like to take a Canvas Snapshot reflecting how we are using Canvas (at this early point in time) to determine our online strengths and needs.

This snapshot is intended to get a picture of how instructors are using the Canvas template, organizing their course, and conducting online education. The snapshot will not provide individual course improvement ideas or instructor advice. Rather, it is looking at how we, as a whole department, are using Canvas and providing online courses. The information from this snapshot will inform design trainings and assistance; our design/template priorities; to give us a better understanding of how we are using Canvas to benefit our students; and finally creating a template that works for faculty.

The snapshot is part of our larger strategic plan to keep improving our online delivery and course organization. This snapshot will help meet our goal of ongoing quality improvement. We hope to do a snapshot like this every 5 years to understand how we are using our LMS, organizing courses, using tools, and other essential information about our online learning and communication.

Plan:

Select 25 to 40 course sections from the BSSW and MSW curriculum that have been taught in Canvas Fall 2020 and/or Spring 2021. We will do selective sampling from the BSSW and MSW courses (but random selection of section/instructor) to include:

5+ BSSW junior courses
5+ BSSW senior courses
2+ BSSW from 1010 or 1600
5+ MSW foundation year courses
5+ MSW concentration year courses
4+ electives across programs

This purposive yet random selection will allow us to look across the curriculum and sections to get a broad picture. The sampling pool will be selected from Cat I., Cat II., and Affiliate faculty sections.

You will be notified if your class is selected to the Canvas review. We will not enter your course without your knowledge. If you would like to volunteer, feel free, however, please know you will not be given any individual feedback as this is not an “audit” but rather a picture of how we are using Canvas that will inform where we want to go. No work or effort is required from you in this process. You will also be informed when we are finished with the snapshot. If you would like an individual course audit or accessibility audit, please contact Becky individually to sign up for this process.

Becky and Ann will be conducting this “picture” of Canvas during Spring knowing that Canvas is TOTALLY new, and your courses may not look the way you want them to yet. THIS IS OKAY!!! It will be helpful for us to understand how the transition is going and how you all are intuitively (and through hard work) using Canvas.

Types of things assessed:

How and why are faculty using announcements?
What are faculty putting in their modules (i.e., content, text headers, links)?
What is the order or organization used in modules (i.e., discussion first, introductions, readings last)?
How are assignments presented and linked?
What does the calendar look like, course summary in the syllabus, dates – is it even used?
Are Assignments or Discussion tabs hidden or used in the Navigation bar?
Is discussion threaded or do students create new ones?
And other Canvas/Template based questions.

Schedule (tentative):

Present to Online Committee – Done November 2020
Present to Leadership/Integrate Feedback –January 2021
Introduce to Faculty in Faculty Meeting – February 2021
Random course selection – February 2021
Canvas course review – March/April 2021
Collect/Analyze data – April 2021
Bring recommendations to online committee – April/May 2021
Share findings and online committee recommendations back to department – May 2021/Fall 2021

If you have feedback about Canvas and our department priorities in online design and course delivery, please email Ann at [email protected]