Violence Across the Lifespan: An Interdisciplinary WebCT Course
Interdisciplinarity and internet technology are recent advances in social work education. This paper presents the development, delivery, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary, WebCT course to inform health and social service students about the impact of violence in families on family members.
Capitalizing on developments in internet technology, WebCT provides students with opportunities to participate in chat rooms, threaded discussions, access to assignments, and internal e-mail communication with students and instructors. Structuring the course to require interdisciplinary small group assignments and discussion of controversial issues in a safe milieu can result in a rich learning environment that equals or exceeds that of face-to-face classroom instruction (Frey, Faul, Yankelow, 2003; Schech, 200; Wernet, Olligest & Delicath, 2000).
Social Work 440/Nursing 410, Violence Across the Lifespan, developed by an interdisciplinary team (Social Work, Nursing and Women's Studies) initially to meet needs of distance, graduate Social Work students, has evolved to include a mix of on-site and distance, graduate and undergraduate students from several disciplines. This presentation will provide background to course development, examples of lessons, discussions of problematic issues and a summary of student feedback.