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This 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused primarily on addressing racial and social injustices through theoretical and critical analysis, critical social work is a well-established paradigm in Canadian social work education. This pilot study explored how clinical social workers might translate critical social work principles into clinical practice. We used simulation-based research methods to observe social workers' engagement with a Simulated Client (SC; i.e. trained actor). Social workers with at least a Master's degree (n = 8) were recruited from across Canada to conduct a session with the SC via Zoom followed by a post-session interview to reflect on the session. Data were analyzed inductively, using coding methods from Grounded Theory. The following categories emerged as concrete practice skills informed by critical social work: (1) create and hold a space of safety, (2) take an unassuming position while holding theoretical assumptions, (3) peel off the layers of the presenting problems, and (4) take a non-neutral therapeutic stance. Implications for clinical social work practice and further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details an exercise used to collaboratively develop guidelines that support establishing classroom norms. It is one that has been used with practice-based classes that require students to participate in experiential learning activities, and to engage in complex discussions. This short paper consists of three parts: first it makes a brief case for classroom guidelines. Second, it details the exercise. And third, it discusses pedagogical benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details a doctoral student research peer support group that was established consisting of three social work researchers at various stages (doctoral student, doctoral candidate, and postdoctoral fellow) as they trained for qualitative simulation-based research within a research lab at a school of social work in Canada. Grounded in mutual aid, this paper highlights the development of this student research peer support group which focused on experiential, collaborative, and reflective learning. Benefits of establishing similar groups are discussed, and suggestions for doctoral students and faculty interested in developing similar groups are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This explorative study provides insight into the experiences of standardized clients (SC) involved in simulation for social work education and research. The purpose was to contribute to scholarly conversations regarding SCs and to provide an empirical foundation to inform our simulation program by attending to the perspectives of SC participants who are key to simulation-based learning (SBL). A qualitative, cross-sectional survey was employed to understand these experiences. In doing so, this study attempts to ensure SBL design and implementation is more attentive to SCs who increasingly represent marginalized communities. SCs (n = 14) reported an enthusiasm for engaging with social work simulations as they find the work both interesting and meaningful. The findings demonstrate how incorporating SCs into teaching teams fosters a community of practice that can function to incorporate members of marginalized communities into professional education, and reshape pedagogical strategies for supporting the development of holistic competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation-based learning is gaining attention in social work education. While research suggests clear pedagogical benefits for those who engage simulated clients as interviewers, little is known about the learning processes among observers of simulation teaching. Using social learning and social cognitive theories as a theoretical framework, we examined observational learning in simulation by comparing the experiences of students who participated as an interviewer versus students who participated as an observer. An online survey was administered to Bachelor and Master of Social Work students (N = 66) to collect quantitative and qualitative responses (N = 107) about their learning experience from the perspective of either an interviewer or an observer. Quantitative analyses revealed that interviewers perceived simulation with SCs to be more beneficial to their clinical learning compared to observers. No other differences were found between the two groups. A thematic analysis of qualitative data showed the following three unique learning processes among observers: (1) emotional distance from practice, (2) observation of the relationship between theory and practice, and (3) vicarious learning from peers. Results suggest that educators leverage student learning opportunities in observing roles and actively engage them during simulation debriefing sessions. Implications for simulation-based education and further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In discussing a university-industry partnership on the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based simulation platform, this conceptual paper explores the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) as a pedagogical innovation in social work. Critically reflecting upon this ongoing project, we discuss the current promises and limitations of NLP for social work education. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework theoretically informs "lessons learned" from this case study and provides a call to action for social work educators to play a greater role in developing and researching pedagogies supported by currently evolving AI technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary iterations of the youth question present social work with a generative challenge to imagine the education needs of youth as social work students, and at the same time, to imagine the intervention needs of youth as service users. This paper engages this challenge through an empirical case that confronted us with our own preconceived understandings of young people and social work: a funded project to support the program evaluation capacity of a national network of youth centers in Canada. Working through three tensions that emerged in this work—(1) assumptions about youth and workers, (2) participation as a best-practice, and (3) how local data collection practices are networked to ambiguous, ongoing social processes—we reflect project learning and youth studies literature together to explore the possibilities of 'critical inquiry skills' in social work education. As we develop the concept here, critical inquiry skills are a means to encourage young people to see themselves as simultaneously within and outside of the categories and approaches they are taught and subjected to, and by extension, to invite and support newcomers to make the discipline and profession their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shines light on the tension-filled subjectivity of community practice, reflecting on the experiences of two community workers and our stories of how our whiteness functions in community practice—particularly when white workers engage with racialized community members. Through these stories, we seek to demonstrate how the white worker is framed as what we call an "innocent expert subject"; this subject is one that is both constituted through the authority of the systems we work within, and one which we construct through our own actions. Potential dangers of this subjectivity are then explored, as are opportunities for subversion. As we work toward negating the potential harms caused by this fraught subjectivity, it is our hope that possibilities for different kinds of community work, and different kinds of white community workers, can be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]