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ABSTRACTThis teaching note describes how a school of social work adapted Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) during the COVID-19 pandemic to an online live-streamed format, providing students the opportunity to engage in this experiential learning activity despite pandemic-related limitations. A step-by-step process for developing online OSCEs is described, highlighting three key areas—planning, training, and implementation—and the significance of developing a community of practice. Reflections from our team on promising practices for conducting a live-stream OSCE, and insights from the perspectives of simulated clients (n=4), and experienced OSCE raters (n=6) are shared. Implications are described to support future teaching as educators are compelled to continuously prepare social work students for the online realities of practice beyond COVID-19.

ABSTRACTThis article reports the use of online live-streamed simulations (online LSS), implemented on Zoom with Master of Social Work students. A thematic analysis was conducted from an online survey (n = 26 responses) to explore, 1) if online LSS can offer the same potential to develop holistic competence as in-class simulations, and 2) how students experienced learning social work practice through online LSS. Students reported learning procedural and meta-competencies, and indicated that online LSS provided a space to focus in on the procedural, relational and affective elements of online client sessions. We suggest that online LSS can offer similar training potential as face-to-face simulations, and that online LSS can offer unique learnings to assist students in developing competencies relevant to online practice.

The use of simulation (i.e., trained actors) has gained much attention in social work as a method of teaching, learning, and student assessment. Simulation has also been used in medicine as a research method in studying practice competencies. The use of simulation as a part of research design is relatively new in social work. Particularly, little is known about how simulations can be combined with well-established qualitative research methods. We posit that simulation can further advance qualitative research on social work practice, which requires a highly complex set of skills that are procedural, cognitive, affective, and relational. Drawing from two study examples, we propose guidelines for how simulations can be incorporated in qualitative research on complex practice competencies essential for enhancing the quality of health and social services.