The 100 hours of video and 50,000 pages of text in this collection are structured around twelve of the most important topics in the social work curriculum, most of which are applicable worldwide:
The pedagogical videos in Social Work Online address the essential concepts students will employ in their everyday work as practitioners. The documentaries offer real, complex, and deeply personal experiences that are best understood through observation—letting students consider how they might address various client issues in the field. In addition to the curated content from various sources, Microtraining Associates, an Alexander Street imprint, has produced a number of original videos to meet the need for social work training videos on essential issues.
Text content in Social Work Online supports and expands upon the concepts taught across the social work curriculum, selected to add perspectives to topics that are highly relevant but not always well covered in textbooks.
Pair relevant videos and texts together to offer a comprehensive look into issues specific to geriatric social work.
The population over eighty-years-old is the fastest growing group in the US. Thus, geriatric social work is a growing area of the social work curriculum at the bachelors and masters level. When videos are paired with relevant text materials, the combination becomes a powerful teaching tool that enhances student understanding of the skills and knowledge necessary to work successfully with older adults. Examples include:
Ethics and Values in Social Work: Client-Centered Processes for Managing Ethical Concerns (Microtraining Associates, 2018)
Professional ethics are at the core of Social Work practice. Ethics provide accountability and guide decision-making and everyday professional conduct of social workers. This video provides social work students and practitioners with a series of practice-based situations that explore a range of ethical issues. These scenarios will provide viewers with an opportunity to identify, assess, and make decisions about how to manage ethical issues in a range of social work contexts. This video includes nine modules covering a range of ethical issues such as Value Conflicts, Confidentiality, Informed Consent, Self-determination, Safety, and Mental Capacity. The modules begin with explanation of key concepts, followed by practice-based situations, and ending with questions to guide discussion.
Strike Dice! Betting on My Father (Filmakers Library, 2011)
A documentary film about a daughter trying to get her father, who is addicted to gambling, off the street and into permanent housing.
A Creative Toolkit for Communication in Dementia Care, London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016
This collection was curated in collaboration with an expert board of social work faculty and librarians, including:
Wow! I am totally impressed with the videos and related transcripts…I did not imagine the final work would be so relevant for instruction. The videos are powerful and caught my attention. It was simple to navigate the site and I could have spent the entire day reviewing everything available.
Frank Baskind, PhD, MSW, M.Th. Dean Emeritus and Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University