The effects of online instruction on counseling skills development in students enrolled in a community college counseling program

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of type of instruction on counseling students in their development of counseling skills and emotional intelligence. This study took place in an addiction counseling program at a Midwestern community college. The research design was quantitative and quasi-experiential as students based on their own needs and interests registered for either online or face-to-face classes. The results showed stronger correlations between categories in the pre surveys compared to the post survey results. Additionally, the categories that included modeling as well as differentiated teaching appeared to play a significant role in both online asynchronous instruction as well as in face-to-face instruction;however, it was also discovered that the focus of some of those factors shifted with the move from face-to-face to being online for their class instruction. For example, the findings showed that there was a greater correlation between modeling and the pre-survey responses, compared to the results for the post-survey responses. Overall, the results showed significant differences in several of the examined categories. Lastly, the impact of Covid-19 in the Spring 2020 semester necessitated changes to this study after the procedures began. This provided interesting outcomes that revealed a discussion of many new and more intricate questions regarding the conclusions and recommendations for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)