Trial by Fire: Innovative Approaches and Evaluation of Course Transition During COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 virus produced unprecedented challenges in the delivery of social work education nationwide. This study focused on the innovative approaches and transition efforts of one college of social work in the United States. The evaluation data of these efforts for six face-to-face and online Master of Social Work (MSW) courses and visual data from polls conducted to assess the socioemotional status of students in two online MSW courses were analyzed. The results suggest that students were highly satisfied with the transition efforts. Three themes emerged, suggesting the need to balance course instruction with teacher–student empathy, flexibility, and compassion toward students’ challenges. This study suggests future strategies that could be permanently implemented with a focus on social justice.

Authors’ contributions

The first and second authors have made an active contribution to the design, data collection and analysis, and writing of this article. The third author has made an active contribution to the writing and editing of this article.

Compliance with ethical standards

This research complies with international, national, or institutional standards on research involving human participants or animals.

Data availability statement

All data are produced by the Houston university evaluation data bank. The extracted data are included in Table 2.

Data deposition

The data will not be included in a shared depository.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Institutional review board

The University of Houston Institutional Review Board approved the study protocol, and it was exempt for a full review.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sujeeta E. Menon

Sujeeta E. Menon, PhD, LMSW, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Virginia (Ginger) Lucas, LMSW, Assistant Professor, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, Professor and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education, UH Graduate College of Social Work.

Virginia (Ginger) Lucas

Sujeeta E. Menon, PhD, LMSW, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Virginia (Ginger) Lucas, LMSW, Assistant Professor, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, Professor and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education, UH Graduate College of Social Work.

Susan P. Robbins

Sujeeta E. Menon, PhD, LMSW, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Virginia (Ginger) Lucas, LMSW, Assistant Professor, UH Graduate College of Social Work. Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, Professor and Associate Dean for Doctoral Education, UH Graduate College of Social Work.