Master of Social Work Online: Curriculum

This course introduces students to generalist practice theory and skills in professional practice with individuals and families. Essential critical thinking skills are examined as is the planned change process: engagement, interviewing, assessment, planning/intervention, implementation, evaluation, and termination.

This course helps students develop and apply the theoretical and philosophical formulations that underlie direct practice with groups.

Theory informs individual’s cultural influences and transactional relationships within families, groups, organizations, and communities. This course implements evidence-based theories to understand and ultimately help change behavior.

This course provides an exploration of the historical and current context of social problems utilizing a justice informed framework and allows students to understand the complexities of social problems as and how social work defines and addresses these issues.

This course utilizes philosophical formulations that underlie ethics and relevant concepts to develop ethical reasoning and decision-making, addressing dilemmas faced in practice and cultivating professionalism to build and sustain relationships.

This course provides a foundation to understand the critical analyses of social policies and policy making processes and the impact of such on clients and human service delivery systems within a social justice framework.

Students start supervised fieldwork in a generalist setting to practice what you’ve learned in working with individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities.

This course provides systematic approaches to scientific thinking necessary for building knowledge and evaluating one’s own practice as well as the ethical use of scientific inquiry.

Focus on a strengths-based approach to empower marginalized populations, build human capacity, advocate for just policy, and create sustainable justice.

This course will build knowledge of the major mental disorders typically encountered by social workers along with diagnostic classifications, criteria, etiologies, and natural histories of disorders and treatments.

This course prepares students to conduct culturally sensitive clinical assessments and treatment plans of adults, children and families including diagnostic assessments, substance use evaluations, lethality assessments and other evidence-informed approaches.

Students will examine and engage various models/frameworks for conceptualizing, implementing, and analyzing contemporary social welfare policy.

This course delves further into theory and practice appropriate for work with organizations and community systems and continues to explore community practice models that engage effective social work practitioners within organizations and communities.

Students will complete a 300 hour practicum in a public or private agency that provides services to a wide range of individuals and practice theory, knowledge, and skills in clinical decision-making, assessment, and treatment planning under supervision.

In the final practicum, students prepare to practice as social workers at the advanced level in public and private settings by focusing on the application of theory, knowledge and skills developed in the advanced curriculum year with practice experience in community-based agencies.

This course provides a foundation for students to become sophisticated consumers of research by applying quantitative research methods in executing single-subject designs and participating in clinical intervention studies to test the effectiveness of interventions.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to child abuse and neglect, including historical perspectives, indicators of maltreatment, theories about its etiology, and effective interventions on the micro and macro levels. Students will learn about child protection policies and services, and the social worker’s roles and responsibilities.

This course is designed to prepare students to practice with individuals and families affected by child sexual abuse. Theory, process models, and evidence-based practices relevant to child sexual abuse will be presented. The course will focus on developing practice behaviors necessary to assess and provide case management for children, families, and offenders in child sexual abuse cases. Additionally, there will be an emphasis on the role of social work in a multidisciplinary team approach specific to child sexual abuse, including advocacy to prevent abuse, raise awareness, and ensure treatment for survivors.

SW 640 – Foundation Practicum (3)
Students start supervised fieldwork in a generalist setting to practice what you’ve learned in working with individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities.

OR

SW 740 – Advanced Practicum I (3)
Students will complete a 300 hour practicum in a public or private agency that provides services to a wide range of individuals and practice theory, knowledge, and skills in clinical decision-making, assessment, and treatment planning under supervision.

OR

SW 741 – Advanced Practicum II (3)
In the final practicum, students prepare to practice as social workers at the advanced level in public and private settings by focusing on the application of theory, knowledge and skills developed in the advanced curriculum year with practice experience in community-based agencies.

This course provides the Master’s level social work student an opportunity for advanced study of differential diagnostic assessment using the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The course also provides an opportunity for more detailed study of the more common mental disorders seen in social work practice. In conjunction with the Decision Making course it provides an opportunity for advanced study of clinical decision making as it pertains to current mental health assessment.

This course builds on previous content related to clinical decision-making, psychopathology and clinical assessment, and is designed to 1) apply a range of intervention theories to children, adults, families and groups, 2) facilitate the student’s capacity to conduct a comparative analysis of the approaches across common, conceptual, clinical, cultural and ethical domains, and to provide the forum for a critique of each approach using the latest empirical evidence on efficacy and effectiveness.

This course offers an intensive study of three evidence based practices: one for adult, one for children and one group intervention. It is designed to increase the social worker’s familiarity with evidence based practices for social work treatment of mental health disorders.

This course provides an overview of social work practice with military members, veterans, and military families. Students will learn to appreciate the unique experiences and stresses of military members and their families and the resultant implications for helping professionals serving this population. Topics to be covered include: (a) Warfare’s historical role in shaping public policy, (b) the military as a distinct subculture of American society, (c) common psychosocial problems and stresses experienced by military members, veterans, and military families, (d) a survey of evidence-based treatments for common psychopathologies and psychosocial problems experienced by this population, (e) an overview of systems of care serving this population, including the roles of social workers within these systems, and special ethical considerations for social workers serving military and veteran populations.

Prerequisites(s):
Open to graduate and upper division undergraduate students.

This course provides an overview of social work practice with military members, veterans, and military families. Students will learn to appreciate the unique experiences and stresses of military members and their families and the resultant implications for helping professionals serving this population. Topics to be covered include: (a) Warfare’s historical role in shaping public policy, (b) the military as a distinct subculture of American society, (c) common psychosocial problems and stresses experienced by military members, veterans, and military families, (d) a survey of evidence-based treatments for common psychopathologies and psychosocial problems experienced by this population, (e) an overview of systems of care serving this population, including the roles of social workers within these systems, and special ethical considerations for social workers serving military and veteran populations.

Prerequisites(s):
Open to graduate and upper division undergraduate students.

This course provides an overview of military work and family connections. Students will gain familiarity with the challenges unique to military individuals and families and the resources available to address them. Topics to be covered include theoretical approaches to understanding the impact of military work on individuals and families; demographic profiles of and organizational demands on military service personnel and their families; military service and outcomes for children and adolescents, roles and challenges of military spouses; family policy in the military (including current formal and informal support structures and emerging trends in serving military families).

Prerequisites(s):
Graduate or advanced undergraduate standing & 6 hours of 200 level or above courses in social and behavioral sciences or consent of instructor.

Preapproved List or Petition the Certificate Advisory Board for Approval of an alternative elective course.

A presentation and examination of school social work practice. Emphasis will be placed on roles, competencies, and skills necessary for effective service provision. The differences in services to children in schools will be contrasted with those in primary social service settings. The focus will also be given to the impact of school legislation and regulations on the choice of populations served and programs provided.

Designed to enhance professional judgment and clinical decision-making concerning child and adolescent clients, this course provides knowledge and skills for assessment and intervention concerning a broad range of biopsychosocial disorders, including situationally precipitated conditions or disorders. An integrative, comparative, and analytic approach is used to explore the relationship between these conditions and the matrix created by biology, society, culture, and environment, and to apply this knowledge to assessment and treatment.

Basic principles of applied behavior analysis and modification that employ social learning theory and operant conditioning models are taught. Emphasis is placed on designing individualized learning environments, selecting, and implementing behavior management strategies, writing behavior objectives, and performing task analyses.

Prerequisites(s):
EDS 375 or permission of the instructor.

Students will complete a 300 hour practicum in a public or private agency that provides services to a wide range of individuals and practice theory, knowledge, and skills in clinical decision-making, assessment, and treatment planning under supervision.

In the final practicum, students prepare to practice as social workers at the advanced level in public and private settings by focusing on the application of theory, knowledge and skills developed in the advanced curriculum year with practice experience in community-based agencies.

This course is designed to challenge and develop the student’s knowledge of and ways of thinking about substance use and misuse. It provides clinical and scientific knowledge about the nature of substance misuse and the effect of substance misuse on individuals, families, health, and development. It also introduces current evidence-based treatment and prevention approaches.

This online course examines social work practice theories, intervention approaches and skills as they apply to practice with childhood and adult survivors of physical, sexual and other forms of abuse and trauma. Particular attention will be made to the use of engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation and follow up on the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice. An emphasis will also be placed on diversity and use of social work ethics and values when working with survivors of abuse and trauma.

SW 640 – Foundation Practicum (3)
Students start supervised fieldwork in a generalist setting to practice what you’ve learned in working with individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities.

OR

SW 740 – Advanced Practicum I (3)
Students will complete a 300 hour practicum in a public or private agency that provides services to a wide range of individuals and practice theory, knowledge, and skills in clinical decision-making, assessment, and treatment planning under supervision.

OR

SW 741 – Advanced Practicum II (3)
In the final practicum, students prepare to practice as social workers at the advanced level in public and private settings by focusing on the application of theory, knowledge and skills developed in the advanced curriculum year with practice experience in community-based agencies.

Understanding the impact of trauma from micro, mezzo, and macro practice perspectives is an essential skill for social work professionals. This course reviews the trauma-informed care model, examines multi-level causes of trauma, and explores resilience-based interventions from a neuroscience perspective.

This online course examines social work practice theories and intervention skills, applicable to practice with survivors of abuse and trauma. An emphasis will also be placed on the application of social work ethics and values when working with survivors of abuse and trauma, particularly as it relates to the management of vicarious trauma.

Trauma-informed practice skills promote client post-traumatic growth and healing. This advanced practice course explores trauma-informed engagement, assessment, treatment and intervention, and termination strategies; analyzes the effectiveness of evidence-based and somatic treatment models; and explores treatment implications for micro practice.