The use of technology in psychotherapy training: some research-informed reflections part 4

The use of technology in psychotherapy training: some research-informed reflections part 4

Measuring participation

Another issue to be considered is how to measure a student’s participation for online training. Obviously with live training they are either there, or not, but still the tutor is inherently assessing their level of participation in discussions and activities. As McIntyre (2011 a) says, “If an online activity is not directly supporting to an assessment task, or the student cannot see any useful purpose, they will usually not participate.”

Autonomy

A fundamental outcome of any psychotherapy training will be that the student becomes an autonomous professional. Autonomy therefore is an important aspect to consider when planning any training. Bouchard (2009) explains that online learning means that many different elements are within student’s control including initiative, motivation, selecting resources, evaluation, interaction, cost-benefit ratio of learning. Also, I was interested to see the following as a conclusion from a study of the use of online CPD training for medical doctors:

“These systems help to address the problem of poor skills training and proficiency and may provide a method for physicians to become self-directed lifelong learners” (Issenberg et al, 1999)