1. Comparing Skill Development Between Online and F2F Students Dina J. Wilke, PhD, MSW Erin A. King, MSW, LCSW Margaret Ashmore, MSW, LCSW B. Craig Stanley, PhD, MSW, LCSW

2. Purpose Lots of evidence of no differences between asynchronous online and F2F outcomes like satisfaction, grades, etc. o True for single classes and overall programs Few studies examine skill development Interested in assessing if clinical intervention skills can be taught in an asynchronous format

3. Course Design Utilized the advanced MSW practice course from the clinical concentration o Theory & Practice of Crisis Intervention All sections taught by the same instructor o Online = Blackboard platform, asynchronous o F2F = Bb assisted, met 1x/week for 2h 45m Same course objectives, readings, and major assignments

4. Sample & Measures Three semesters of both F2F (n=74) and online (n=74) classes o Instructor taught F2F and online simultaneously in a given semester Discrete cohorts o Student were either all online or all F2F

5. Measures Assessment/treatment plan o Written on a fictional client case (video) o Graded by the course instructor (unblinded) Digitally recorded role-play o Capstone assignment o Graded by a doctoral student (blinded) Quality points o E.g., A = 4.0, A- = 3.75, etc.

6. Assessment/Treatment Plan Observed video of an initial interview with a fictional client Developed written assessment and recommended intervention plan Evaluation: o Insight into the client situation o Application of the course content o Identification of evidence-based strategies

7. Digital Role-Play Students selected 1 of 4 scenarios provided by instructor o Identified their own role-play partner o 30 minute expectation Evaluation: o Ability to establish rapport o Rapidly establishing a relationship o Assessing for lethality o Conducting a crisis assessment o General interviewing skills

8. Blinded Reviews Assignments uploaded to Bb with IDs Program assistant downloaded videos and burned to a CD o Associated name with student ID in a separate datafile CDs were provided to a doctoral student grader who was blinded to course delivery mechanism o Same grader for all 6 classes

9. Additional Info Demographics were retrieved from University database o Age, gender, race t-test and chi-square tests were used o Post-hoc test used one-way ANCOVA

10. Sample Characteristics ItemF2F (n=74) Online (n=78) p-value Race (%) White Black Hispanic All Else 74.3 14.9 6.8 4.0 66.7 20.5 10.3 2.5.559 Gender (%) Male Female 16.2 83.8 10.3 89.7.340 Age 28.3 (8.68) 36.2 (10.5) p<.001

11. Results ItemF2F (n=74) Online (n=78) p-value Assessment/ Tx Plan 84.2 (14.6) Range 0-100 81.6 (9.5) Range 49-98 t(150)=1.349 p=.180 Role-Play 91.6 (5.7) Range 70-100 91.0 (5.7) Range 77-99.5 t(150)=.651 p=.516 Quality Points 3.83 (.50) 3.34 (.45) t(149.59)=4.84 p<.001

12. ANCOVA – Assmt/Tx Plan Source SSdfMSFp-value Course Delivery Type 354.731 2.36.13 Age88.181.59.45 Error22394.62149150.30 Total1066566152

13. ANCOVA – Role-Play SourceSSdfMSFp-value Course Delivery Type 53.901 1.69.20 Age106.731 3.33.07 Error4770.4014932.02 Total1272262.75152

14. Strengths Significant effort to control for instructor effects Skills-based assignment reviewed by an experienced, blinded grader who was not part of the instructional team o Same grader each semester o Reduced bias associated with expectancies around student performance Fairly large sample size

15. Limitations Generalizability? o Students may have been typical but was the instructor? Role-play was an artificial environment o May have been recorded multiple times o Could have strengthened findings by including field data

16. Discussion Appears that clinical skills can be acquired in an asynchronous learning environment Future Research? o Is the opportunity to self-assess key rather than instructor observation and feedback in class? o Can similar conclusions be drawn about foundation skill development? All students in this study have had a foundation field placement

17. Forthcoming Wilke, D.J., King, E. A., Ashmore, M., & Stanley, B. C., (in press) Teaching clinical skills online: Comparing skill development between online and F2F students using a blinded review. Journal of Social Work Education.