Online training to prepare counselors for online counseling: Newstrategies and tools

Transcription

1 School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver source Counseling Faculty Publications Counseling Faculty Scholarship 2008 Online training to prepare counselors for online counseling: Newstrategies and tools Troyann I. Gentile University of Colorado Denver, Leping Liu Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons Recommended Citation Gentile, T., Liu, L. (2008). Online training to prepare counselors for online counseling: Newstrategies and tools. In G. Marks, and A. Rodssett (Eds.) E-Learn in Corporate, Government,Healthcare and Higher Education Annual 2008 (pp ). Las Vegas, NV: AACE. This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by the Counseling Faculty Scholarship at source. It has been accepted for inclusion in Counseling Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of source. For more information, please contact

2 Online Training to Prepare Counselors for Online Counseling: New Strategies and Tools Leping Liu University of Nevada, Reno, USA Troyann Gentile University of Nevada, Reno, USA Abstract: This paper will present our experiences to design and implement an online training unit to prepare school counseling majors for online counseling. The experiences focus on two parts: (a) the design of the online training, and (b) the design of online counseling. Based on a technology-integration model and the traditional ADDIE instructional design model, new strategies that cooperate with the online environment and current Web 2.0 tools and applications are developed and applied into the online training and online counseling. Strategies, tools, issues and some useful tips will be discussed. Introduction Counseling can be delivered in a variety of forms, which differ in terms of the participants, the setting, medium of communication, and interaction process. Among the participants in counseling are individuals, couples, or groups. The setting in which counseling takes place can be either face-to-face or at a distance. The medium of communication can be written, auditory, or visual, which is in person or in video. The interaction process for counseling can be synchronous or asynchronous (Astramovich, Jones & Coker, 2004; Bobek, Robbins, Gore Jr., Harris-Bowlsbey, Lapan, Dahir, Jepsen, 2005; Burnett-Stuart, 2001; Casey, 1995; Liu, 2007). According to the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) (1997) synchronous interaction is when there is little to no break in time between the responses between the counselor and the client, for example, counseling face-to face. Asynchronous interaction is when a break in the interaction time between counselor and client exists (NBCC, 1997). For example, counseling by way of the internet can be asynchronous. However, counseling by way of the internet can be both synchronous and asynchronous depending on the method used. Recently there has been a growing amount of interest and research with regard to online counseling (Laszlo, Esterman, & Zabko, 1999). Online counseling has also been referred to as e-therapy (Grohol, 1999), ecounseling, cybertherapy, and telecounseling. For the purposes of this article the term online counseling will be used to refer to the practice of counseling, which does not occur in an office environment with both the counselor and client in the same room, but across some measure of distance. According to the NBCC (1997), WebCounseling is defined as the practice of professional counseling and information delivery that occurs when client(s) and counselor are in separate or remote locations and utilize electronic means to communicate over the Internet (p. 1). To meet the challenge of counseling practice in the digital age and the requirement of the CACREP standards (in Eligibility Requirements, Section II, Program Objectives and Curriculum, Technological competence and computer literacy), our school counseling master s program developed a course Counseling and Information Technology, in which we designed an online training unit to prepare the counseling majors for online counseling. This paper will present our experiences to design and implement an online training unit to prepare school counseling majors for online counseling. The experiences focus on two parts: (a) the design of the online training, and (b) the design of online counseling. Based on a technology-integration model (Liu &

3 Velasquez-Bryant, 2003) and the traditional ADDIE instructional design model (Gagne, Wager, Golsa & Keller, 2005), new strategies that cooperate with the online environment and current Web 2.0 tools and applications are developed and applied into the online training and online counseling. Strategies, tools, issues, and some useful tips will be discussed. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework used to guide the online training consists of two theoretical models, a technology integration model (Liu & Johnson, 2003; Liu & Velasquez-Bryant, 2003), and a traditional instructional design model (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, & Mizell, 2005). The ITD technology integration model has three dimensions: (a) information(i) represents the learning or teaching content, and any supporting resources and materials, (b) technology(t) represents the hardware and software tools that can be used appropriately to support or enhance learning and teaching, and (c) instructional design(d) represents a set of rules for instructional design. This 3D-ITD Model illustrates a merging of the uses of information and technology into a system that follows the rules, theories, and models of instructional design. It is assumed that technologybased learning only occurs as the result of the integration of all three dimensions: Information, Technology, and Instructional Design; no single dimension or any combination of just two dimensions in this model will produce effective learning. The traditional ADDIE instructional design model (Gagne, Wager, Golsa & Keller, 2005) includes five phases: (a) Assessment to assess the learners, the learning content, the need of technology, and any related issues; (b) Design to determine what needs to be done: the tasks, activities, materials, technology designs, and the teaching procedure all summarized into a to-do list; (c) Development to work on all the planned tasks; (d) Implementation to complete the instructional unit, beta testing, and revisions; and (e) Evaluation to evaluate if the instructional unit achieved all the design criteria and the learning outcomes as well. Design of the Online Training Unit Five Stages of the Counseling Process -- Information The online training unit is part of a required course; we first started with the information part of the unit, which is the counseling content basically, the five stages of the counseling process. There has been a general consensus that a natural progression takes place within the context of the counseling/therapeutic process. This progression allows both the counselor and the client to build a relationship, assess the situation, set appropriate goals, develop a plan to bring about the desired results, and terminate the relationship. This progression is known as the counseling process. Each of the stages builds upon the former. There are five stages of the counseling process. They are: developing a relationship, making an informed assessment, establishing mutually agreed upon goals and objectives, developing an implementation plan, and termination. According to Cormier & Hackney (1987) & Doyle (1992), the first stage, developing the relationship, begins with the first meeting and ends with the last. This stage is perhaps the most important stage in which to facilitate the entire process. In order to develop a positive helping relationship, you must be able to connect with the client. This connection can only happen when the client feels as if the counselor genuinely cares about their well-being and can understand where they are coming from. Rogers (1951) stated the importance of behaving in a way that demonstrates the core conditions of genuineness, respect, and empathy. To develop a solid relationship, the counselor needs to create a safe environment where the client feels comfortable enough to open up and talk about anything that is on their mind, which in turn may provide the counselor with the information necessary to make an informed assessment. The second stage of the counseling process is when the counselor makes an informed assessment. An informed assessment happens when both the counselor and client gather enough information in order to

4 figure out what s really going on so that the counselor can assess what needs to happen next, in order to change the situation for the better or build up the client s coping skills to better deal with a problematic situation (Cormier & Hackney, 1987). There are several ways to go about gathering the information necessary to make an informed assessment. Information can be acquired through verbal interaction, visual observation of the client, discussion with other people involved in the client s life, and review of any documentation with regard to the client. The first step in making an assessment is to find out if change is necessary, and if it is, what needs to happen for change to take place. If it is determined that change is necessary, then the next step is to figure out what needs to change. Is the change a behavior? An attitude? A situation? The third stage of the counseling process is to establish mutually agreed upon goals and objectives, known as the treatment plan. Developing and establishing mutually agreed upon goals is important, because the more the client is involved in, and in agreement with, the course of treatment the more likely the client is to take ownership of the goals and follow through with the treatment plan (Egan, 1986; Walter and Peller, 1992). The fourth stage of the counseling process is implementing the plan. The treatment plan is designed to prevent, intervene, or address unhealthy behaviors and practices. The implementation of the plan identifies who will perform the activities, where the activities will occur, how frequently they will occur, how they will be carried out, and when they will be carried out. Implementation activities are designed to help the clients re-think risky behavior, work through problematic issues, address unhealthy lifestyles practices, learn new skills, and build strengths. Implementation activities can include: counseling, crisis intervention, training and education, and supportive services. The final stage of the counseling process is one of termination (Peterson & Nisenholz, 1991). Termination is the last thing that happens in the counseling process. However, termination is not something that should be discussed during the last or even next to last session with a client. Termination should be among the first topics that counselors and clients discuss. Kramer (1990) suggests the counselor must be clear from the beginning that the intent of treatment is to facilitate the client to function without the help of the counselor. Counselors are ethically bound to communicate to their clients how long they will be available to counsel them, to discuss openly the timeline of the counseling relationship, and to make appropriate referrals or recommendations at the conclusion of the counseling relationship. Termination is a stage of counseling that clients need to be prepared for and that counselors need to address early on in the counseling process to avoid abandonment. Ideally, termination occurs when the goals, which were mutually agreed upon in the third stage have been achieved, or the problem for which a client has entered into counseling has become more manageable or resolved. Some counseling theories are also included, such as human development theories, psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories, cognitive behavioral theories, constructivist and social constructionist theories, and theories of brief counseling and therapies (Barlow, 2004; Capuzzi, & Gross, 2005; Gibson & Mitchell, 2003; Nugent & Jones, 2005). Technology Skills for Online Counseling -- Technology The second dimension of the unit was technology skills that are necessary to implement the counseling process online. The following technologies (hardware and software) were taught through lab assignments delivered online: 1. Developing a counseling information website for counseling clinic or individual counselors; 2. Creating an online scheduling form and counselor profile 3. Using synchronous online communication tools to conduct Online/distance counseling: for individual/group/clinic counseling 4. Recording counseling sessions (from online logs and the screen catch video program) 5. Editing counseling video segments 6. Finalizing video production for counseling skill training 7. Assessing counseling procedures 8. Developing a course portfolio to demonstrate all the theories and skills learned from this course.

5 9. Other Web 2.0 tools and services such as blogs, information sharing, and outsourcing activities. After these two phases of learning, students were prepared with the content knowledge and technology skills to perform online counseling. The third dimension of the online training unit Design, was the implementation of the online counseling through an online team project. This project went through the five stages of the ADDIE design model as discussed next. Design and Implementation of Online Counseling One major objective of this online training unit was to prepare students for online counseling, and provide the opportunities for them to obtain some first-hand experiences. Knowing all the possible problems when conducting online counseling will be of help in the students future work when the real world project comes. The first part of the project was team building. This has been one of the major issues of this online course. There were several group projects for counseling practice in this training unit, so, the team building started in the first week of the unit. A class picture (some with video clips) was assembled by the instructor and posted onto the course in the first week (see Figure 1), and we also used the WebCT roster to post individual information. People who knew one another formed their team easily, but for half of the teams, the author assigned them into a group. Figure 1. Sample of Class Picture After each team was formed, the online counseling project was conducted with the ADDIE design model. The Model has four stages: Analysis, Design, and Development. In the Analysis stage, students performed the assessment, determined the needs of the client(s), set the objectives for the clients(s), and determined the strategies for the counseling session. A counseling information website was created and used in the analysis stage. Figure 2. Sample of Counseling Information Website

6 Figure 2 is an example of the counseling information website developed by a student. The website includes related counseling information and a pre-assessment form to collect preliminary assessment data from the client. In the Design stage, students determined what specifically needed to be done, and developed a to-do list. They needed to define the tasks, specify the necessary technology tools, determine the format of online delivery of the counseling, set the timeline, and assign tasks to specific persons. Students used , discussion board (as the blog board), and a video conference program to perform the activities in this stage. In the third stage, the Development stage, the team worked on all the preparation tasks to get ready for the counseling session, such as locating related information on the particular area that the client might need to learn, obtain the equipment needed for online communications, prepare and test the communication settings, and develop interview guidelines.. Students also used , discussion board (as the blog board), and a video conference program to communicate with the group and the instructor in this stage. Next, in the Implementation stage, the team worked on and completed each of the tasks as they had planned, adjustments were made in some teams. The online counseling was undertaken in several sections, and all the activities in each section were recorded and documented. The online career counseling was evaluated according to the recorded information and their documentation. Again, all the synchronous and asynchronous communication tools were used in the online counseling sessions, and video editing, and screen catch video making programs were used to evaluate the online counseling sessions. Figure 3 is an example of the online conversation log (text-based), and file transfer while conducting conversation. Figure 3. Sample of Online Conversation Log and File Transfer Last, the Evaluation of the counseling sessions. The evaluation is a relatively difficult stage. The assessment plan and detailed strategies are determined in the second stage. The assessment components are planned into the online counseling procedures, such as recording the conversation logs, and recording the online counseling sessions into a video segment. Students used a screen recoding program Camtasia to record the online counseling sessions. Subsequently, students used Movie Maker to edit the session video, add text labels to identify the counseling skills/stages, and add voice comments to evaluate the performance by both

7 the counselor and the trainer. Figure 4 is an example of the video editing procedure used to evaluate the counseling session video. Figure 4. Sample of the Online Session Video Editing and Evaluation Because this was an online training unit, we did not require face-to-face meetings. Four out of the seven teams in the training class completed their team project via online communication with high quality; three groups had to meet in person (since they are all local students) and developed the projects, with good quality as well. Furthermore, students developed their own personalized online counseling model based on the theoretical models and their personal experiences. Summary In summary, this online training session was successfully designed and delivered. Obviously, it achieved the goal to provide counseling students with opportunities to learn, conduct online counseling, and obtain some first-hand experiences with online counseling. Ongoing revisions of the course will be needed the next time it is taught. Our experiences also generated some research interests. We have planned studies to explore (a) what are the major or potential issues and problems of online counseling, (b) what strategies of planning and designing the online counseling would produce more positive outcomes, (c) the different perceptions of counseling students when they conduct face-to-face counseling and conduct online counseling sessions, (d) how students feel about the their experiences when they performed both as a counselor and as a client, and (e) whether students learn the counseling skills more or less effectively from regular counseling than from online counseling practice. We hope our experiences could be of help to counselor trainers, should they want to conduct the similar online training for online counseling. We will continue to report our findings from current and future experiences. References Astramovich, R. L., Jones, W. P., & Coker, J. K. (2004). Technology-enhanced consultation in counseling: A comparative study. Guidance & Counseling, 19(2), Barlow, D. H. (2004). Psychological treatments. American Psychologist, 59(9),

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