Counselor Education Online Curriculum Design: Social Justice Considerations

Abstract

The use of technology has gained considerable momentum in counselor education as more programs are being offered in full and partial online platforms (ACES Technology Interest Network, 2017; Snow & Coker, 2020). With the global pandemic beginning in 2020, many programs that had not yet offered online courses were challenged to quickly shift to an online format. This change provides an opportunity to carefully reflect on best practices in online course design and assessment at the student, class, and program level. When given the responsibility of designing a course for any mode of delivery, faculty may struggle with where to begin. There may be an inclination to find a good primary resource such as a reliable text, and then work from there developing lectures, study aids, and assignments. An alternative approach is to begin by thinking about the course learning outcomes, and what competencies students will need to develop and demonstrate once working in the field. Once the course outcomes are identified, an assessment plan including the formative and summative learning activities is the next design step. In order to promote deep learning and consistent student developmental progress, the instructional design must be well-conceptualized with each component intentionally built in to support the end result (Czersawski, 2014; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). We aim to provide a brief illustration of the application of two models to support effective course design for online delivery of the counselor education curriculum. The first, which we have found especially wellsuited for counselor education, is competency-based education. Designing with competencies that align to the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards in the forefront, is also consonant with the second model, the backward design. This approach recognizes the importance of formative and summative assessments that are responsive to diverse learning styles and authentic to the field of practice (Alalshaikh, 2015; Moates & Cox, 2015). Further, the use of technology for full or partial delivery of a course or program curriculum presents the advantage of an embedded assessment strategy to support real-time generation of student learning outcomes (SLOs) data. This promotes opportunities for intervention at the student, course and program level (Akos, 2019). An example of how the approach can be applied to measuring competency development as a social justice advocate is offered. COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of distance learning in 2020 throughout the world. Online education is now central to counselor education and the trend will likely continue post COVID-19 as well. The history of distance education technology in counselor education is first explored and then the advantages and challenges of this learning model are discussed along with the ethical, legal and regulatory implications. Finally, the future of counselor education is explored along with emerging technologies that may again disrupt our teaching and learning models. Conference Proceedings