Master of Social Work program now offered fully online
JOHNSON CITY (April 20, 2021) – East Tennessee State University recently received
full accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education to offer its Master of
Social Work (MSW) program fully online.
Previously, the MSW program has been offered on-ground on ETSU’s main campus and at distance sites in Asheville, North Carolina, and Abingdon, Virginia. While the on-ground program still will be offered on the main ETSU campus, the new, fully online program will replace the on-ground locations in Asheville and Abingdon, as well as open the program to students who live in other areas.
“Most of our MSW students are working, non-traditional students, so we are consolidating our efforts to make our program more flexible and accessible to a broader range of students,” said Dr. Mary Mullins, chair of the Department Social Work.
The fully online MSW will be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous classes. The synchronous classes, which require students and the professor to be online together at the same time, will be held in the evenings, using a cohort model that allows them to get to know their classmates in the online format.
Although the fully online program is new, the faculty and students in ETSU’s Department of Social Work have experienced online MSW courses since being forced to pivot to online learning last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That experience was one impetus for exploring the fully online option.
“COVID-19 actually helped the faculty and students reassess our notions about what online programming could look like,” said Dr. Brittany Wilkins, associate professor and MSW program director. “For example, before the pandemic, there were some classes that we were hesitant to put online because we didn’t know what they would look like or how effective they would be. Through this process, we discovered that the students who were in these online courses were just as successful and well trained with the combination of synchronous Zoom and the asynchronous coursework.”
COVID-19 also has increased the demand for social workers, a field that was already projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as growing 13% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than average for all occupations.
The MSW at ETSU is a clinical concentration, preparing students to do therapy in individual, group and family settings. Students who complete the program are eligible to pursue licensure as an LCSW (licensed clinical social worker), which allows them to assess, diagnose, treat and prevent mental illness and emotional and other behavioral disturbances.
ETSU offers two MSW tracks – the traditional track for students whose undergraduate degree is not in social work, and the advanced standing track for students who have a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). Students in the advanced standing track can complete the program in as little as three semesters if enrolled full time and two years if enrolled part time. The traditional program takes two years (full time) and four years (part time).
“In addition to our amazing curriculum and faculty, our program also requires experience in a field placement,” Mullins said. “Our field director works individually with each student to tailor a clinical field experience for each student.”
Students in the fully online program will benefit from the same individual attention that the on-ground students receive, Mullins added.
“We’re trying to be flexible and accessible, while still delivering the same quality of programming that our students are used to,” Mullins said. “The accreditation of the fully online program that we received in March is an affirmation of that commitment.”
To learn more about ETSU’s MSW program, which is housed in the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, email msw@etsu.edu or visit www.etsu.edu/gradschool.