Review of Online Education in Social Work Programs

Despite the growing prevalence of online courses and programs, there is a lack of information on and continuing debates about their effectiveness on student learning outcomes in social work education.Purpose: The current study was to examine the status of the evaluation of online courses or programs in social work education.Method: Using comprehensive and rigorous methods, 15 articles were reviewed to examine the effectiveness of social work online courses or programs. All reviewed articles were either quantitative or qualitative studies that used process or outcome evaluation.Results: The major criterion for comparison of the effectiveness between the face-to-face and online course was grades.Discussion: There is an overall disconnect with the concrete value and meaning of assessment within social work programs and universities and schools appear to have placed assessment and student learning outcomes secondary to the financial gains that online courses and programs bring.