Educating a Multidisciplinary Human Services Workforce - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 3

characteristics distinguish the human services
workforce from a number of other occupations.
In the human services, workers are engaged in
diverse roles and multiple functions with quali-
fications that range from short courses through
to university degrees. The courses include: social
work, psychology, aged care, disability, mental
health, children's services, counseling, welfare
studies, community work, human services and
youth work. Employment is distributed widely
across all levels of government, non government
organizations, health, and social and community
services fields. Several unions and diverse employ-
ment arrangements and awards have contributed
to a blurring of disciplines and tension regarding
professional identity and boundaries. A high
gender imbalance (85 per cent female) together
with increasing proportion of care related roles
makes a disproportionate amount of fractional
employment (part-time) another significant issue
(Lonne, 2007). There are limited career paths for
workers engaged in direct practice and wide salary
disparities. Related to these are the difficulties of
recruitment and retention in certain areas such
as child protection and significant workforce
mobility.
Human services have traditionally relied upon
face-to-face interaction as a major form of commu-
nication and transmission of information in both
educational and workplace settings. As in social
work education, most human services courses
give considerable attention to group learning and
relationships (Shardlow & Horwath, 2000; Smith
& Wingerson, 2006). This chapter explores the use
of information communications technology (ICT)
tools to educate the human services workforce.
First, human services education is considered
within the context of a multidisciplinary workforce
and the varied needs of learners. This is followed
by a discussion of the main approaches to teach-
ing and learning and the architectures to support
these. A case study illustrates the experiences of
a human services worker engaged in continuing
professional education. Future trends for educating

a multidisciplinary human services workforce are
identified using a “blended approach” that includes
face-to-face and online delivery as well as a variety
of educational approaches and architectures to
support these instructional/learning strategies.

eDucating a multiDiSciplinary
Human ServiceS Workforce

In Australia the first social work program pro-
vided via distance education was developed by
Monash University in response to pressure from
the State Government to address a severe shortage
of professional workers in rural Victoria. With
the increased use of ICT tools for both on and
off campus programs, the distinction between
face-to-face learning and “distance education”
became blurred. Moreover the distance education
program initiated to meet the needs of rural work-
ers soon attracted metropolitan students in need
of, or attracted by its flexible delivery. In terms of
levels of satisfaction and educational standards,
Oullette (2006) found no significant difference
in interview skill acquisition when comparing
classroom based and online learning. In a further
study by Siebert (2006) of a post graduate clini-
cal social work skills course, the final results of
online students were considered comparable to
students in face-to-face classes. Using the virtual
classroom of a graduate social policy course,
Roberts-DeGennaro (2005) found that students
enjoyed learning through the virtual classroom
as much as traditional on-campus components
the of course. Following their study of classroom
and online field practicum seminars over a three
year period Wolfson et al (2005) decided to offer
the fourth year practicum seminar for social work
students exclusively online.
Research on flexible learning in rural New
South Wales inAustralia found that human services
were in a transitional period undergoing a rapid rate
of change and growing complexities of job roles.
This was reflected in a 'tension between the need