Building for the Future: Social Work and Human Services

Submitted By

Sean Davis, Sociology Faculty, Coordinator of Center for Teaching and Learning

Overview

MiraCosta College has been promoting the use of open educational resources to support student success since 2016 when its Academic Senate passed a resolution in support of OER and no-cost, low-cost materials. The Social Work and Human Service Pathway grant was a unique opportunity to create Career Technical Education OER to give students an introduction to a career in an area that is poised for growth in San Diego County. Although the grant was planned before the pandemic hit, the online feature of the program has made it possible for students to continue to enroll in the program and will be available in the future as well, completely online.

CTE Degree major/certificate converted to ZTC/OER Pathway:

Social Work and Human Services Certificate (COA) and Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT)

Published on February 26, 2021

Motivation

MiraCosta College was awarded $98,188 from the California Virtual Campus – Online Education Initiative’s Improving Online CTE Pathways grant funds for a project called ‘Online Social Work and Human Services Program.’ This project was to create the only online Social Work and Human Services Certificate of Achievement (COA) and Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) in Social Work in the State of California. The ADT in Social Work provides opportunities not only for entry-level social workers, but also for incumbent workers seeking to attain undergraduate and graduate degrees to forward their careers.

The grant helped with promotion of the new certificate and degree and the funding to pay faculty and staff to do the work associated with the development of a new program. Additionally, the hiring of an instructional designer to help with course design and accessibility was a huge benefit.

Implementation

Two courses were developed with the resources provided by the grant: (1) Introduction to Social Work and Human Services and (2) Fieldwork/Practicum Course in Social Work and Human Services. The instructors for the courses were also the developers. They worked with an instructional designer to curate high quality free and open educational resources for the courses. The web services and emerging technologies librarian also was enlisted to find resources. Free ebooks, podcasts, videos that are all accessible at no cost to students were incorporated.

One challenge was that that principal investigator did not have previous grant management experience. It was necessary to learn on the job how to manage budgets, engage the team of faculty and staff, and write grant reports. Support for this training should be considered an essential part of grant planning.

Awareness Building

Presentations were the primary method of engaging stakeholders internally and externally to show the potential benefits for students and employers. The program has been presented at counseling meetings and other spaces across campus. It has been promoted locally through community-focused publications. MiraCosta’s Public Information Office has done a great job promoting the program both in-house and in the community. In addition, a presentation was made at the at the OER/ZTC CTE Pathways Showcase in December 2020.

The Social Work and Human Services program website includes potential salary for graduates of the certificate and degree programs with the usual information on how to apply and program requirements.

Outcomes

The Introductory class had full enrollment in the fall semester 2020 and a good headcount for the Practicum class. The Service Learning department at the college has been working very hard to connect students with Human Service Delivery Organizations during a very challenging time to make this possible.

The two new courses also have received an articulation agreement with the San Diego State University’s Social Work Bachelor’s of Art program as well as being part of a transfer degree to California State University San Marcos, the highest transfer institution for MiraCosta students.

Next Steps

The Social Work and Human Services team is going to continue to grow the program through promotion in our local community of northern San Diego county. The plan is to lean on our local organizations and four-year institutions such as San Diego State University and California State San Marcos to better inform the continued development of the courses and programs.