ABSTRACT

Online education has long been a controversial issue within the Australian social work community. Although technological advances have improved the quality of teaching substantially, scepticism and disbelief continue to exist. Despite the growing evidence base as to the effectiveness of online teaching, this tends to be overlooked. A scoping review of the literature was conducted to synthesise research conducted on online social work education to identify its effectiveness, potential, and challenges and to show whether online social work education will effectively prepare qualified social workers. This revealed that online education enhanced diversity and equity among social work students and students’ performances and satisfaction were similar for both online and on-campus students. Nevertheless, communication and engagement continue to be a challenge.

IMPLICATIONS

• Decisions on online education should be based on evidence of effectiveness rather than on the assumption that face-to-face teaching is superior.

• Further research is needed to explore effectiveness of online education for different groups of students.

• Employers’ experiences with social work graduates from online courses need further research.

• Academics require support to tailor courses interactively and suitably for online education.

摘要

在线教育长期以来一直是澳大利亚社会工作社区中一个有争议的问题。尽管技术的进步大大提高了教学质量，但怀疑和怀疑仍然存在。尽管有越来越多的证据表明在线教学的有效性，但这一点往往被忽略了。对文献进行了范围界定性审查，以综合开展有关在线社会工作教育的研究，以确定其有效性，潜力和挑战，并显示在线社会工作教育是否将有效地培养合格的社会工作者。这表明，在线教育增强了社会工作学生的多样性和公平性，在线和在校学生的表现和满意度相似。不过，

含义

• 关于在线教育的决策应基于有效性的证据，而不是基于面对面教学的优势。

• 需要进行进一步的研究，以探索针对不同学生群体的在线教育的有效性。

• 雇主与在线课程的社会工作专业毕业生的经验需要进一步研究。

• 学术界需要支持来交互式地定制课程，并适合进行在线教育。