Online Students Develop Marketable Professional Skills

Today’s students face a growing list of questions when they seek higher education online courses. The program’s online attractiveness includes savings in transport costs, avoiding long journeys and getting more flexibility to balance competing priorities, such as family responsibilities. Although online certification may seem attractive and comfortable, students must also assess the value of their education and consider whether their degree will help them find a job after graduation. In particular, online students may need to convince potential employers of the unique professional skills they developed when completing their courses. According to interviews with US News and World Report, most employers rarely question online education, but some Remain cautious.

These few cautious employers worry about academic leaders. According to the "Grade Level: Tracking online skill development courses in the United States", in 2014, nearly 40% of academic leaders surveyed were concerned about the likelihood of online education being accepted by potential employers, including 37 percent of leaders of private non-profit institutions. 33 percent of public enterprise leaders and 47 percent of leaders in profit-making institutions.

In this article, we share the results of a survey of 188 students preparing for online courses at Columbia University’s School of Social Work (CSSW) during the 2014–2015 school year. We hope that the results will help students online, as well as trainers and officials, to think about the work skills they can gain from taking courses online.

What Professional Skills Do Online Students Want?

Results were obtained from 10 CSSW orientation sessions for all students enrolled in one of their new online courses. CSSW has expanded its MSc in Social Work to include an online option and has given resident students an option to participate in their online courses as part of a pilot test over the last two years. Online courses include the asynchronous task that students perform independently during the week, as well as weekly live and simultaneous sessions on the Webinar platform. To prepare students for good performance on the Internet, CSSW requires students who take online courses to participate in mentoring sessions. These sessions guide students through the online platforms they will use in their courses, make sure that they are properly configured and provide basic tips on how to succeed in an online course, including how to participate in the class. And the importance of time. Administration.

We asked the following multiple-choice question during each orientation session: "Which of these professional skills would you like to improve through online learning?" Students chose the largest number of options out of 10. The questions and answers are designed to help students think about the additional benefits of taking an online course, as well as learning the course content.

The results of the survey indicate that students were interested in developing a variety of professional skills when taking courses online. At least 38 percent of students chose all skills offered as options. For us, this exercise had the dual benefit of telling us more about students who decided to take online lessons, as well as setting expectations for students from the start that they would have more online learning experience than they thought.

Checking in After Course Completion

After the end of the school year and posting grades, we enrolled with some students who had taken online courses to see if they had developed the professional skills they wanted.

"My confidence increased, as did my responsibility, strategic time management and written and verbal communication over the Internet, which encouraged my career development," said Massel Jimenez, who chose to join several online classes in his first year at CSSW. Professional rather than online skill development courses. In particular, Francine Campbell appreciated the skills she developed online:

CSSW management member Derek Lee Weihong, who graduated in May, had a similar view. Looking to the future, he said: "The online course helped me develop my virtual communication skills and presentations, which are essential, as I’m likely to be in jobs where I’m expected to offer online training and seminars." Kung entered the process skeptical of the online experience but found himself undecided and ready to enter the labor market which increasingly relies on digital communications.

His point of view was convincing. Professor Schink came to teach online with more than 30 years of classroom experience.

We also discovered that the story of Kathleen Ebert, a graduate and a member of the Department in 2015, is convincing because it showed a real application of the skills acquired in online training courses:

Developing Professional Skills in Future Courses

The field of online learning is still open to development and interpretation. It also has an almost universal impact on higher education. According to a survey conducted by only 11 percent of the institutions surveyed offered an online training course, most of which are planned to do so in the future.

We hope that the participation of our relevant questionnaire will help us value the value of online learning for students. In CSSW, we will continue to run this survey for students during online mentoring sessions to achieve the same dual benefit of knowing their goals and give them insight into the additional possibilities available to them in their classes online skill development courses. As we learned from this survey and follow-up interviews, students began their courses on the Internet also interested in developing professional skills, and some students described a strong impact on their later development. We suggest that teachers and administrators help their students think about the various additional benefits of taking courses online, to help students observe and clarify all their achievements. This may also help alleviate any concerns about employers’ negative perceptions of online learning. The questionnaire and follow-up showed that online students end up with the professional skills they will not be able to get.

Hughes Global Education is the pioneer in providing the ‘Interactive Online Learning Platform’ for the working professionals to pursue an Online Executive Diploma/Certificate Programs.