ABOUT VSWT
VSWT IS
- Training for child welfare workers, providing repeated skills practice, including immediate feedback, tracking performance over time using learning theory for effective skill acquisition.
- Focuses on skills crucial to child welfare work, such as identifying potential risk and protective factors during home visits, engaging, and assessment skills (such as suicide screeners, worker’s safety, etc.).
OVERVIEW
Structured skills practice opportunities are commonly absent from current approaches to training in social work. Software programs, including virtual reality formats are increasingly used in the professional development efforts of many industries such as medicine, military, and education. The Virtual Home Simulation (VHS)- a virtual reality training module for child welfare work has been developed as the first in a suite of skill development modules being designed to address this gap. Guided by learning theories such as Deliberate Practice Theory, VSWT’s modules are designed to provide immediate, competency-based feedback, while tracking user skill development over time.
OUR INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH
Research on how humans learn has shown a valid learning environment is necessary to reliably acquire complex skills such as those needed for social work practice (Thalheimer, 2007; Ericsson, 2006). For example, valid learning environments focus on learning specific skills under the guidance of a teacher, with frequent feedback, and opportunities for frequent practice. This type of skills practice is not a part of the training of social workers. Absent effective ways to practice skills, social workers often learn on the job, putting clients at risk.
Our apps and virtual reality software can be used to develop a method for practicing skills prior to on-the-job performance. Past lessons with other technological advances suggest technology-based learning will only be an effective learning tool if it enables the creation of a valid learning environment.
The first skill module in the Virtual Social Work Trainer (VSWT) -- Virtual Home Simulator (VHS) is a skills practice tool for identifying safety concerns or possible indicators of protective factors or protective capacities of caregivers during a home visit. It is designed to incorporate the principles of learning needed to create a valid learning environment. The feasibility and usability of the VHS has been established (McDonald & Davis, 2019). A crucial component of a valid learning environment is accurate feedback. The approach used for creating competency-based feedback while using any of the VSWT Skills Modules is made possible through a consensus model of national experts from various jurisdictions.
Reliably becoming an expert in child welfare practice is extremely difficult without a way to practice the skills needed to intervene with families effectively. Enhanced learning technologies can provide a method for practicing skills repeatedly, as needed. A central component of skills practice is reliable feedback. A rigorous study of the development, implementation, and outcomes using VSWT skills modules is planned based on sufficient funding.
Our apps and virtual reality software can be used to develop a method for practicing skills prior to on-the-job performance. Past lessons with other technological advances suggest technology-based learning will only be an effective learning tool if it enables the creation of a valid learning environment.
The first skill module in the Virtual Social Work Trainer (VSWT) -- Virtual Home Simulator (VHS) is a skills practice tool for identifying safety concerns or possible indicators of protective factors or protective capacities of caregivers during a home visit. It is designed to incorporate the principles of learning needed to create a valid learning environment. The feasibility and usability of the VHS has been established (McDonald & Davis, 2019). A crucial component of a valid learning environment is accurate feedback. The approach used for creating competency-based feedback while using any of the VSWT Skills Modules is made possible through a consensus model of national experts from various jurisdictions.
Reliably becoming an expert in child welfare practice is extremely difficult without a way to practice the skills needed to intervene with families effectively. Enhanced learning technologies can provide a method for practicing skills repeatedly, as needed. A central component of skills practice is reliable feedback. A rigorous study of the development, implementation, and outcomes using VSWT skills modules is planned based on sufficient funding.
REFERENCES:
- Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. J. Feltovich, & R. R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 683-704). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- McDonald, C. & Davis, M.J. (2019, January). Using Virtual Reality to Learn How to Identify Threats to Safety and Protective Factors in Child Welfare: Feasibility, Usability, and Acceptability Results. Society for Social Work and Research Conference, San Francisco, CA.
- Thalheimer, W. (2007). Measuring Learning Results: Creating fair and valid assessments by considering findings from fundamental learning research. Retrieved February 13, 2019 from http://www.work-learning.com/catalog/