Online Bachelor's in Social Work Curriculum

This introduction to social work course focuses on understanding the values and ethical standards of social work practice using the NASW Code of Ethics. Ethical decision making frameworks and critical thinking are emphasized. The historical foundations of social work, the professional mission of social work and the responsibilities of the profession are explored. Emphasis is also placed on navigating personal and professional values and successfully collaborating with related professions.

This course reviews social work theories, with an emphasis on the person-in-environment and strengths perspectives. Human behavior is explored through developmental models and the importance of context, including the social environment. The importance of human relationships, culture and identity development are examined from a behavioral perspective.

This course explores social justice strategies in order to promote human rights. Human rights related to freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care and education are explored throughout the past with a look towards preventing future struggles. The systems of oppression and privilege are explored and practices that aim to dismantle structural barriers are applied.

This course examines the professional code of ethics and laws pertaining to the profession of social work. Students will be introduced to boundaries and self-care as they begin the process of exploring field education opportunities.

This course explores the dimensions and intersectionality of diversity and identity, including but not limited to age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, marital status, political ideology, race, religion/spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. The individual and systematic forms of oppression and discrimination impacting the individual will be examined in relation to power and privilege on the micro, mezzo and macro-levels.

This course further explores human rights and social justice from a policy perspective. Policies that impact social welfare funding, practices and services are examined from the past through current. Policy implementation is studied at federal, state and local levels in order to promote general well-being and advance human rights. Current, social work advocacy work will be explored to understand how policy initiation and reform processes operate on a local, state and federal level.

This research methods course covers basic concepts including problem formulation, ethics, study design, measurement, sampling, data collection & analysis, and dissemination. Research procedures will be explored from the past to the present from a human rights perspective. Emphasis is placed on understanding the dynamic processes between scientific research and the field and how that translates to social work practice.

This course introduces students to Financial Social Work including knowledge about issues in daily financial life, such as budgeting, debt, credit and working towards identified financial goals. Students will learn how complex financial struggles intersect with other psychosocial stressors and develop skills to directly and effectively address financial issues at multiple system levels. From a macro perspective student will learn about policy issues that influence and affect people’s goals for financial stability.

This course focuses on social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Theories and practices surrounding engagement, rapport building, and the importance of human relationships are analyzed and implemented to build foundational social work practice skills. This is the first social work practice course in sequence. Generalist practice skills will be applied through projects and assignments. Engagement learning dimensions will be explored, including identifying personal competence, approaching clients, interviewing, resource referral, communication and documentation. Social work practice frameworks will be implemented, including strengths based, empowerment, person-in-environment, ecosystems and evidence-based perspectives.

This course focuses on social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Theories and practices surrounding assessment are analyzed and implemented. Where the first practice course focuses more on engagement skills at the individual, family and group level, this second practice course the focus is more balanced. On the micro-level, various common generalist social work practice measures and assessment practices are explored from a strengths-based perspective, recognizing the client as expert and cultural competence is emphasized. On the macro level with organizations and communities, local community needs assessment project is at the core of this course, where individuals explore their residing community from social work generalist practice perspective.

This course focuses on social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. This is the third course in the practice series. Theories and practices surrounding interventions are analyzed and implemented. Interventions are explored and evaluated in a generalist practice strengths-based perspective, understanding the impact of cultural competence with working with diverse at-risk client populations.

This course focuses on social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. This is the fourth course in the practice series. Theories and practices surrounding evaluation are analyzed and implemented from a social work generalist practice perspective. Emphasis is placed on life-long learning, accountability and practice improvement.

This course focuses on current and future trends in the profession of social work. Students will be introduced to social work professionals, groups and organizations. Students will have the opportunity to observe firsthand social work practice in a variety of contexts. Students will research and study the numerous opportunities in social work and begin to develop their professional and occupational goals.

This Capstone course is an opportunity for students to reflect on and integrate social work holistic competencies and skills acquired during their foundation and practice coursework. Through the process of reflective projects students will demonstrate conceptualization of core social work knowledge, values and professional skills. The capstone is intended to assist students with moving forward in their careers or applying for Master level social work programs. This course introduces students to the process of life-long learning and reflection on social work practice.

This experiential course is completing 200 supervised-hours in the field of social work; this translates into 12.5 hours per week over two back-to-back 8-week sessions. This course is introductory experiential learning in the field of social work. Placements are found through the self-selection process. Students are now performing the duties and responsibilities of a social worker at a distinct placement site, therefore expanding their knowledge, skills, abilities and cognitive affective processes of the human service field through direct practice. This application course allows students to practice in the field of social work under the supervision of a trained field instructor. Requires 200 hours of field education at placement site.

This course is designed to initiate students into social work. It focuses on applying theory directly in the field. This is an interactive seminar course to be taken concurrently with field placement. The course will cover various topics and issues that arise in the field of social work. Students will be responsible for facilitating discussions. They will discuss challenges they experience, ethical concerns, social justice and diversity issues as well as questions related to self-discovery. This course will encourage you to think creatively, consider contextual influences, and apply theory and research in the field. Although you will be applying all 9 competencies within the field of social work, this seminar will focus on your knowledge of Competency 6 engagement and Competency 7 assessment with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Field education is quintessential to social work and this course will help acclimate students to the field of social work.

This second experiential course involves completing another 200 supervised-hours in the field of social work, again translating into 12.5 hours per week over two back-to-back 8-week sessions. This course is experiential learning in the field of social work. Placements are found through the self-selection process. Students are now building upon previous skills achieved in field placement one and performing the duties and responsibilities of a social worker at a distinct placement site, therefore expanding their knowledge, skills, abilities and cognitive affective processes of the human service field through direct practice. This application course allows students to practice in the field of social work under the supervision of a trained field instructor. Requires 200 hours of field education at placement site.

This course is designed to academically and professionally support students advancing in their field placement. It focuses on applying theory directly in the field. This is an interactive seminar course to be taken concurrently with field placement. The course will cover various topics and issues that arise in the field of social work. Students will be responsible for facilitating discussions. They will discuss challenges they experience, ethical concerns, social justice and diversity issues as well as questions related to self-discovery. This course will encourage you to think creatively, consider contextual influences, and apply theory and research in the field. Although you will be applying all 9 competencies within the field of social work, this seminar will focus on your knowledge of Competency 8 intervention and Competency 9 evaluation with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Field education is quintessential to social work and this course will help acclimate students to the field of social work.