Teaching social work skills-based learning online during and post COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic radically disrupted face-to-face teaching of practice-skills within social work programs in many countries. Across the globe, campuses closed suddenly, meaning students and staff had to quickly transition to online platforms to sustain teaching and learning interactions. In response to this unprecedented and demanding situation and from the perception of the inquirers, this article documents the critical pedagogical and heutagogical factors associated with teaching practice-skills online, during the current challenging and destabilising epoch. Co-operative Inquiry is used to critically reflect on the ‘hard’ technological applications and engagements experienced by social work academics, and learning and teaching technologists from a university, who urgently developed and delivered intensives online during this complex time. The thematic analysis identifies four pedagogical and heutagogical factors vital for educating during such a time. These are: responsiveness, collective leadership, dynamic interaction between staff and students, and critical reflection. The implication being, that these factors can become solid foundations for transformational online learning in dynamic teaching environments. The article provides a timely empirically-based examination of the delivery of skill-based intensives online during a challenging and destabilising period, the associated teaching processes, and the technological affordances.

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