MSCD Social Work

Distance Education Program

In Colorado, the Governor's Task Force on the Well-being of Children addressed many issues related to child welfare training and staffing. The recommendation to the Governor was that by 2005 all caseworkers have their BSW (or MSW). As it stands now, it appears that counties will be encouraged to hire BSWs. There are 1600 caseworkers across the state. Less than half have social work degrees.

The discussions are moving toward caseworkers being certified at the time of hire either by passing a certification examination or by having a BSW. Metro State would be the primary undergraduate educational institution for BSW students due our child welfare stipend program. There are two other undergraduate social work programs in the state but they are not part of the child welfare stipend program.

The need for social work education is statewide. It is necessary to provide online and distance education courses for all major, minor, and certificate courses in order to accomplish this.

Beginning Spring 2001, required courses will be brought online in this order: Introductory courses, Junior courses, and Senior courses. The priorities have been set based on student funding, student interest, courses shared with other departments or certificate programs, courses shared with the Family Support in Social Work Certificate Program, and external agency support.

The Council on Social Work Education (cswe.org):
CSWE accreditation standards require programs intending to offer a year or more of their course work at an off-campus location using distance education technology to submit a formal proposal to the Commission on Accreditation for approval. The Distance Education Information Technology Committee reviews the proposals to ensure programs create and implement distance education components comparable in quality to their main-campus offerings.

As of April 17, 2003 the Commission accepted the department's proposal as a report on a change in the curricular offerings of the program. The MSCD Social Work Department is approved for a distance education component to be offered as part of its accredited degree in social work.

SWK Information Literacy Permit and Distance Education Driver License

Metro State's Self-Assessment
designed to assist you in deciding whether online course delivery is appropriate for you

! If you are a Distance Education student and live more that 100 miles from the Auraria campus, contact the Social Work Department (303-556-3474) to check availability of videobroadcasting Hybrid Social Work courses to a site closer to where you live. You must be a SWK major or minor/certificate student. There is a $10 per credit hour fee for each Social Work course that is videobroadcaseted. Videobroadcasting ONLY available to students living in Colorado.

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