Initiating Difficult Conversation through Research Methods Online Teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Overview: This proposal presents successful teaching strategies for MSW Research Methods courses transitioning from in-person to remote as COVID-19 closed classrooms. The instructor reformulated teaching activities by integrating racial research topics during the Black Lives Matter protests. Student evaluations indicate the effectiveness of such teaching strategies during a global health crisis.Proposal text: Background
Since March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly affected social work education. Students faced multiple stressors, such as remote learning, concerns with academic performance, and increasing levels of stress affecting mental health well-being (Sahu, 2020). Moreover, the murder of George Floyd has triggered outrage and trauma towards systemic racism and police brutality (Krieger, 2020). How social work educators assist students to learn and process such stressors poses a new challenge.
Research Methods is one of the required courses that social work students often resist because of negative attitudes towards research, anxiety related to research, or fear of statistics (Bolin et al., 2012; Davis & Mirick, 2015; Gholami Booreng et al. 2017; Rubin & Babbie, 2016). Instructors play a key role in facilitating students to participate in research and to establish a connection between research and practice upon graduation (Lewthwaite & Nind, 2016; Rhode et al., 2017; Sharland & Teater, 2016). This teaching note presents successful online teaching methods in response to social injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods
The instructor integrated several remote teaching strategies including:
A.Social justice conversation: The instructor demonstrated how to use research to initiate conversations regarding social injustice by examining the General Social Survey question of approval of police striking a male citizen. Small group discussions in breakout rooms allowed students to express their emotions towards racial injustice.
B.Pandemic debriefing: “Corona-debriefing” is critical to release unspoken stress, validate personal feelings, and provide support for students (Klement et al., 2020). The instructor utilized anonymous online polls to create a safe environment for students to reflect upon losses due to the outbreak as our university is located in one of the COVID-19 epicenters.

Results
Two-thirds of student evaluations indicated that abrupt course transitions adversely impacted their learning. Most students showed low prior interest in Research Methods (Mean=2.08, lower than Department Mean=2.88), but the instructor generated their interest (Mean =4.64, higher than Department Mean=4.26). Students rated teaching effectiveness 4.75 out of 5 (excellent), higher than Department Mean (4.23).
Students provided affirmative feedback: “Even after transitioning online, the Professor made such an effort to keep everyone engaged”; ” It was a very tough semester for us and I applaud the Professor on being so flexible and working hard to educate us.”; ” I enjoyed small group conversation to discuss social injustice in a research class.”

Suggestions
This proposal documented effective online teaching strategies in social work education (Alston et al., 2017; Farrel et al., 2018). Online learning is criticized for minimizing human interaction (Zidan, 2015), leading to a bias that social work skills can only be taught effectively in person (Levin et al., 2017; Siegel et al., 1998). In the midst of a pandemic or any other natural disaster, social work educators have to create multiple learning opportunities that allow students to actively participate in a virtual classroom. More importantly, social work educators should integrate Research Methods course materials with current events to demonstrate using research to advocate social justice and human rights.