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New Learner Orientation: Master of Social Work Program Hello, and welcome to the New Learner Orientation at Capella University for our Master of Social Work Program

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New Learner Orientation: Master of Social Work Program Hello, and welcome to the New Learner Orientation at Capella University for our Master of Social Work Program. Today, we're going to review our program, accreditation, our faculty and staff, an outline of our curriculum, the synchronous live sessions, field education, look at some courseroom tools, talk about learner and academic support, professional organizations, how to connect, and different career opportunities within social work. Capella University is a fully accredited program by the Council on Social Work Education. After years of rigorous work, Capella was fully accredited in 2018. Programs that have CSWE accreditation are known to have a curriculum that is rigorous, current, and competency-based. Capella University's Master of Social Work and Master of Social Work Advanced Standing programs are both CSWE accredited. Earning CSWE accreditation is not a simple task. Universities are required to complete a three year process to comply with CSWE educational policies and accreditation standards that show their curriculum and programs are aligned with the discipline of social work education. The mission of Capella University's Master of Social Work program is to educate and prepare diverse adult learners to serve as innovative, 21st century advanced generalist practitioners. We strive to develop professional social workers who will exemplify strengths-based and ecological perspectives, cultural competence, and ethical practice and emerge as leaders who use technology as an adjunct to practice. We aim for our graduates to further advance social work, practice in service of their local communities, agencies, organizations, or even internationally. I would like to introduce you to your MSW program faculty and staff. Dr. Brian Christenson is the MSW Social Work Department Program Chair and Director. He holds a PhD in Adult Education and Organizational Leadership. Dr. Jamie Sundvall is the MSW Associate Chair. She holds a PhD in International Psychology and Trauma Services. Dr. Michelle Sunkel is our MSW Director of Field Education and has a Doctor of Social Work. Ms. Kelly Dykstra is a MSW Field Education Coordinator and holds a Master of Human Relations. Dr. Nneka Onuma is a MSW Field Education Coordinator and has a Doctor of Multidisciplinary Human Services. Dr. Diana Franco is a MSW Field Education Associate and a DSW Core Faculty Member. She has a Doctor of Social Work. Dr. Shanel Bishop is a MSW Field Education Associate and has a Doctor of Social Work. Dr. Dana Harman is an MSW Core Faculty Member and holds a PhD in Social Work. Dr. Donna Hatch is a MSW Field Education Associate and holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Selena Matis is a MSW Core Faculty Member and has a PhD in Social Work. Dr. Addie McCafferty is a MSW Field Education Associate and holds a Doctor of Higher Education and Leadership. Dr. Kathy Oquelí McGraw is an MSW Core Faculty Member and holds a PhD in Social Work. Dr. Crystal Merrill is an MSW Core Faculty Member and holds a PhD in Infant and Early Child Development. Dr. Jacquelyn Trask is an MSW Field Education Associate and holds a PhD in Social Work. There are two paths to earning a Master of Social Work degree. The first one is for foundation learners. These are learners who earned a bachelor's degree in a discipline other than social work. So this could be, for example, a bachelor's in psychology, criminal justice, or sociology, and you're now wanting to obtain your Master's of Social Work. This means that you must complete the foundation and the advanced curriculum to earn the Master's of Social Work. If you're an advanced standing learner, then that means you come into our program with a bachelor's of social work from a Council on Social Work Education accredited program. This means that you only have to complete the advanced curriculum to earn your Master's of Social Work degree. When we look at the program structure for our foundation learners, they have a total of 88 credits that they need to complete to obtain their Master's of Social Work. You can see here that your first course is social work 5001, which is research and social work practice. You move on to social work 5002, which is social welfare, then social work 5003, which is human behavior, and then social work 5004, which is micro social work practice, which has live synchronous sessions. And then you'd continue in the program working towards social work 5014, which is advanced generalist social work practice, and it also has live synchronous sessions, and then you engage in additional courses, including a couple of electives, and then work towards your final requirements. The Master of Social Work for advanced standing learners requires them to complete 52 credits. You will start in social work 5012 working on cultural competence, and then move on to social work 5013, which has mental health practice, and then social work 5525, which is advanced field seminar, and then move into social work 5014 with the live synchronous sessions called advanced generalist social work practice. And then continue to work on your courses. There are a couple of additional like this, and then you work toward your final requirements. Each program requires that you take a minimum of two electives. These different electives allow you to either specialize within clinical social work practice with youth and children, take clinical social work practice with adults, focus on leadership, supervision, and management, or you can choose to graduate courses related to social work within the fields of psychology, counseling, human services, healthcare, public administration, or education. The synchronous live sessions are a place where you get to collaborate with faculty and engage with your colleagues. The synchronous live sessions provide an opportunity to continue coursework with colleagues and faculty. This is an opportunity to engage in real time class discussions, continue work on projects and assignments, build rapport with faculty and colleagues, and there are multiple opportunities to demonstrate social work practice, knowledge, values, and skills with the support of your peers and faculty member. During social work 5004, micro social work practice, learners attend online synchronous live sessions with their instructor and peers to continue content delivery, assignments, role-plays, and discussions based on the online courseroom content. Practice skills, core competencies, and assessment of learner's generalist practice knowledge will be conducted during the social work 5004 course. We want you to practice the skills you've been learning across your different courses and practice them in the live synchronous session. Advanced generalist social work practice is also where learners are going to engage in live synchronous sessions, work on assignments, participate in role plays, engage with peers in class discussions, and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and values relevant to the core competencies and advanced generalist practices. Practice skills, core competency labs, and assessment of learner's advanced generalist practice knowledge will be conducted during the social work 5014 course. These are going to be done in the online live synchronous sessions with your colleagues that will be in your courseroom the entire quarter. There are going to be small group role-plays, and you're going to be practicing as a clinician. You're going to engage and practice before you go out into the community and practice with vulnerable populations. Field education is where we want to integrate coursework into practice. Field education is our signature pedagogy. This means that we want to teach future practitioners the fundamental dimensions of professional work in their discipline. We want you to think, to perform, and to act ethically and with integrity. The intent of field education is to integrate the theoretical and conceptual contribution of the courseroom with the practical world of the practice setting. It is a basic precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum, classroom and field, are both equally important within the curriculum, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice. This means that we're going to build a bridge between everything that you've been learning in your courseroom experience, so that you can take that information and apply it ethically, professionally, and appropriately in the practicum with real world experiences. This field education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated based on criteria by which learners demonstrate the social work competencies. Field education may integrate forms of technology as a component of the program. So we really want you to know what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what theoretical lens you're using, how you can apply that back to your social work competencies, and we're going to make sure that you're able to do that before you go into your field practicums and really hone in and develop those skills. So in field education, learners in the MSW foundation program must attend and successfully complete social work 5004 in the courseroom and in the live synchronous sessions. You must also successfully complete social work 5014 in the courseroom and in the live synchronous sessions. Foundation practicum is 400 hours and that's going to be over two consecutive quarters. Then you move into advanced practicum, which is 600 hours, and this is over three consecutive quarters. You may do your foundation and advanced practicum in one location with different site supervisors, or you may do foundation at one location and do advanced at another. Before you are approved and allowed to start practicum, you must have all of your paperwork completed, everything updated in CORE ELMS systems, and be approved. Then you must have a one quarter in between, then you'll start your practicum. So this means if you're looking to start your practicum in quarter four, you will be required to have all of your paperwork and all of your materials in and approved by quarter two. We have this explicitly explained in the field manual, so I encourage all of you to go to your field manual and plan ahead, be proactive, and understand the sequencing. And again, remember, we're going to go over this multiple times in specialized orientations. And you can reach out to MSWfield@capella.edu with questions. MSW Advanced Standing learners, you only need to complete the advanced practicum. So this means that you will have to successfully complete social work 5014 in the courseroom and the live synchronous sessions prior to starting the advanced practicum. Again, you will also have to have one quarter in between your approval and beginning the practicum. So as I stated before, if you're wanting to start by quarter four, you must have everything turned in by quarter two. Plan ahead, be proactive, and understand the sequencing. For advanced practicum learners, you only have to complete three consecutive quarters, which are 10 weeks each, of the advanced practicum, and it's a total of 600 hours. The field education orientations that I've mentioned previously are required, and we absolutely make sure that you're given the dates and the times in the announcements that are posted in your courserooms. They're in the evening, so it gives lots of opportunity to prepare and plan so that you can attend them. And at these orientations, you will review field education requirements and guidelines with faculty members. There will be lots of opportunity to ask questions, lots of different opportunities for us to share, have communication, and make sure your needs are being met, and that you understand what the expectations are. We also provide one-on-one consults with field education office. So if you're really struggling and you can't find an agency or agencies are not responding to you, if you're in a rural area and community and you can't find a social worker, you can reach out to MSWfield@capella.edu and ask for a consult. The MSW field education coordinators will make sure that you've read the manual and make sure that you understand what the expectations are. They will first attempt to answer any questions that you have. And if you still need further support, then they will send you to a specialized faculty member that will call you, and you can have a one-on-one work through with them any issues or concerns. And that way they can help you to make progress and support you as you find your field practicum. We have the National Association of Social Workers. Learners have the opportunity and are required to join this organization, which is the largest professional organization for social workers and students. You're required to join before you start your field practicum. A discounted rate is available for all Capella learners, and this is the organization that really sets the tone for our professional conduct. MSW provides the Code of Ethics that learners and social workers adhere to in their professional work and in lives. They provide a monthly newsletter to members, discounted professional development trainings, national and local conferences, and membership in local NASW chapters. I strongly encourage all of you to get acquainted with local chapters because this is a great way to meet local licensed and independent social workers in your communities. And it might be a great place for you to network for your practicum sites, for longterm career options. NASW offers discounted liability insurance to learners, which is a requirement before starting your field practicum. We will spend a lot of time talking about liability insurance at the orientations. You're not required to get your liability insurance through NASW. You can get it from another organization as long as it meets their minimum requirement. However, your liability insurance is available through NASW with a discount. So if you have any questions, always reach out to MSWfield@capella.edu. It's found at the top of this slide, and there's a picture of Dr. Michelle Sunkel. She is our MSW Director of Field Education. There's Ms. Kelly Dykstra and Dr. Nneka Onuma. They are MSW Field Education Coordinators. They are going to be your primary contacts. They're amazing at answering questions, checking to make sure that the paperwork is organized, letting learners know if they're missing anything. And if they're unable to fully answer a question or a learner needs additional support, they will reach out to additional faculty members to make sure that you get your needs met. Within courserooms, we have live webinars. These are where you're really going to be able to collaborate and engage with faculty and your peers. You're going to get an introduction to the courses. You're going to learn more about the generalist or advanced generalist skills related to each course. There's going to be a presentation of course content with learner discussions, and these also provide an opportunity to post questions on content areas. The live webinars allow you a chance to engage with your faculty and with your colleagues to talk about the material you're learning in the courseroom. There are typically three of these per quarter, per course. So I would encourage all of you to attend them. The content presented is essential in successful completion of the course. They are held in the evening, and we try to make them very accessible to all learners. We also will share the webinar. If you're unable to attend, for some reason, it will be recorded and placed in the courseroom so that you can go back and watch it and still obtain the same information. To make sure that you're able to access everything in the courseroom, you will need to have the minimum computer requirements. You will also need a headset or earphones with a headphone and a built-in microphone. You are absolutely going to need a webcam. This is required for your practicum, for webinars, some of the specialized meetings, and the live synchronous sessions. And make sure that you have a strong internet connection so that you can engage in live webinars and the live synchronous sessions. If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in activities, contact disabilityservices@capella.edu to request accommodations. We also have a lot of learner support, and we want to make sure that learners know about them and have access to them. So the best place to look at all of the different areas of support is through our campus.capella.edu, which is hyperlinked at the bottom of this slide. And this is where you're going to find our library services. So when your faculty encourages you to look for more research or to provide more evidence for what you're writing about, it's important to access the library services. It provides current literature, and utilizing it will help you to make and defend strong arguments. We also have career services, and we have disability services. So reach out to them if you feel that you need to make sure that we're providing the support to you within the courtroom so that you can be successful. We have additional services within financial aid, and within academic services, we have transcripts and grades. Advising. That's our team that's going to support you and really help you understand your core sequencing. For example, when do you need to take certain courses, or when are you ready to graduate? So reach out to advising with any of those types of questions. We also provide learner to learner communications, so I encourage all of you to go to campus.capella.edu page and just see what we have. That way if you need anything, you'll see what's already there and available to you. We also provide a lot of academic support. We provide support with APA style and formatting. You will be required to follow APA guidelines for all of your assignments. We also require that you use SafeAssign. It supports the development of writing skills. It provides originality reports to help ensure that learners have used sources ethically and effectively in their writings. It allows learners to self-check work prior to the final submission of assignments and faculty can assess the originality reports to support learners in submitting original scholarly work. For academic support, use the link shown at the bottom of this slide to access the Master of Social Work program campus iGuide page. We also have a Social Work Club, and this is dedicated to providing an engaging educational experience and collaborative community of practice to promote networking among members, ethical social work practice, and leadership and professional development, strengths-based perspective, cultural competence, and social and economic justice. All of Capella's social work learners are members of our Social Work Club. You are encouraged to participate in discussions and to build strong networks among peers and colleagues. As a Capella learner, you will be connected to other Capella social work learners all over the United States. Faculty will be posting topics and creating discussions to support learner engagement. Leaders are encouraged to post questions and professional topics of interest as well. We would love you to get involved and to take on a leadership role. You can add this to your resume, and your ideas can be implemented through Capella. So this is a great way for you to show leadership, motivation, and get involved with the Social Work Club at Capella and maybe even in your local community. There are a lot of career opportunities and places of employment for social workers. Social workers are found in hospitals, VA clinics, private practices, colleges and universities, correctional facilities, nursing homes, state and local governments, substance .