Session 32

Title: PhD student readiness to teach social work courses without face to face interaction: An Exploratory Study

Session Description:

Teaching without face to face communication is a new phenomena in social work education. The distance education social work degree programs are now offered together with the regular social work university degrees. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the readiness of the PhD students and recent PhD graduates to teach social work courses, which are delivered though the University of Manitoba Faculty of Social Work Extended Education Division and do not require face to face interaction with students. This study employs an exploratory qualitative framework and relies on primary data, collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews. This research, by exploring the perception of PhD students and recent graduates on their readiness to teach social work courses without face to face interaction seeks answers to the following three research questions:

(1) What are the perceptions of the PhD students and recent graduates on readiness to teach social work courses without face to face interaction?
(2) What are the perceptions of the PhD students and recent graduates on their strengths and weaknesses in teaching social work courses without face to face interaction?
(3) What can be done from the PhD students perspective to improve / maintain their readiness in teaching social work courses without face to face interaction with students?

To understand the dynamics of issues in teaching social work courses without face to face interaction, it is essential to understand the challenges which are faced by the PhD students and recent PhD graduates in making the transition to online teaching. Therefore, the focus of this present exploratory study is to attempt to extract the main challenges in PhD students and recent PhD graduates readiness in teaching social work courses without face to face instruction with students.

Presenter: Oleksandr Kondrashov

Oleksandr Kondrashov is currently enrolled in the PhD Social Work Program at the University of Manitoba. He has had 4 years of extensive experience teaching Social Work accredited courses at the Faculty of Social Work Fort Garry and Inner City campuses, Distance Education and Aboriginal Focus Programs, University of Manitoba. Oleksandr has developed and taught 8 different Bachelor of Social Work degree courses. Some courses have been taught in different settings, such as Nelson House, Thompson, Dauphin and Brandon.