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Transcript of Cybercounseling: Best Practices for Student Services
Web cast
Slide: WCET Presents a Web cast Series:
“Providing Student Services to Distance Learners”
PAT: Hello, and welcome to
the WCET Web cast series, Providing Student Services to Distance
Learners. I am Pat Shea, the Assistant Director for WCET and I'm
coming from you today from our east coast office in Summit, New
Jersey. Also joining us from WCET's headquarters in Boulder, Colorado,
is my colleague Sue Armitage. Hi, Sue. How are you today?
SUE: I'm fine, Pat. How are
you?
PAT: Great.
SUE: I'm delighted to be here.
I am so excited looking at the list of people, seeing where they're
from. Might as well recap, because it's kind of hard to look through
that chat box. But we have folks from Arizona, Oregon, Alabama,
California, Delaware, Florida and Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Oklahoma,
Utah, North Carolina, Washington, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota
and Michigan. Probably some more that I missed, but also, we got
lots of Canadian provinces with us. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
British Columbia, Ontario and someone from France. So, thank you
all for joining us today.
Slide: Cybercounseling: Best Practices for
Student Services
PAT: That's great. And our
special guest today is Donna Ford, who will talk with us about Cybercounseling:
Best Practices in Student Services. Welcome, Donna.
DONNA: Hi, Pat. Hello, everyone.
I too am impressed with the distances that people are coming from
to join us in this Web cast Don't forget to add Oregon to that.
SUE: Oh, I'm sorry.
SUE: Okay. Let's all get started
by looking at the HorizonLive window on your monitor. We'd like
to get an idea how many of you are familiar with this HorizonLive
environment, and I'd like you to tell us if you've participated
in a HorizonLive lecture before, by clicking on the "yes"
or "no" button. See, sort of, above my picture on the
right hand side, there's a green "yes" one and a red "no"
one. So if everybody will go ahead and click yes or no to tell us,
“Yes, I've participated in the HorizonLive before,” or “No, I haven't.”
PAT: And we'll be using this
throughout the presentation today, so it's kind of helpful for people
to get accustomed to how it works.
SUE: Yes.
PAT: And while those are coming
in, during today's session, we invite you to make comments related
to Donna's presentation in the chat box. Many of you are experts
in this field of counseling and this is a good opportunity to share
your knowledge and experiences with a fellow attendee. If you experience
connectivity problems, I would ask that instead of putting that
message in the chat box that you use the telephone number that you
see in the window there above the yes/no buttons, 877-825-5810,
or click on the “help” button to send an e-mail message to tech
support.
SUE: If you would like to
send a private message to someone participating in the session,
click on the "tell" button in that same black bar. Click
on the "tell" icon and only the person you have selected
will see your message.
PAT: Okay, Sue, and it looks
like we have sixty-six people who have not used this environment
before, so we'll try to pay attention to give extra pointers if
we need to, as we go along.
SUE: Good. Okay.
Question: Are you primarily interested in
counseling services
PAT: So that we can get a
better sense of your interest, please respond to the question that's
about to appear on your screen. "Are you primarily interested
in counseling services for students located off campus, on campus,
or a combination of the two?" And Sue's put the question up
on your screen, so if you can just go ahead and vote and we can
tally that and have a better understanding of our audience. And
while you're responding, I want to tell you that this presentation
on counseling is the fourth in our Web cast series on providing
student services to distance learners. Each month through June we
will have a Web cast on a different student series. This series
is part of WCET's work on its Learning Anytime, Anywhere Partnership
project which is funded by the US Department of Education. And our
sincere appreciation also goes to HorizonLive for making it possible
to bring this series to you electronically. Sue, do we have some
results?
Results from question
SUE: Yes. We had a hundred
and eight votes — here is the response: a combination of the
two, off campus and on campus, got 75% of the votes. So that's primarily
what people are interested, both on campus and off.
PAT: Okay. That's good to
know. Well, certainly, we're seeing these populations merge as more
students who even live on campus are seeking ways to access Web-based
services from their dorm rooms. So, interesting to see that. And
just to give you a little background, since a number of you are
new about WCET, it's a cooperative of higher education institutions,
agencies, non-profit organizations and corporations involved in
distance learning. And our focus is on advancing the effective use
of technology in higher education. And you can see some information
about us on the screen now and I'll hope you'll visit our website
to learn even more.
Slide: Cybercounseling: Best Practices in
Student Services
PAT: And now it's time to
tell you about our special guest, Donna Ford. Donna has been a professional
counselor for over twenty-five years and has most recently retired
as a counselor from Ckakamus Community College in Oregon. She was
also a placement officer at Portland State University during her
career. Donna has held leadership positions in professional organizations
for fifteen years at both the state and national levels. These positions
have been in both counseling and career development. She is also
past president of the American Counseling Association. Her term
was 1999 through 2000. So I'm very pleased to have you with us today,
Donna, and welcome once again.
DONNA: Thank you, Pat, and
hello again to everyone. Happy to be with you today, and I'm looking
forward to talking to you about some of my observations and suggestions
for online counseling services.
Question: On your campus do you provide...
DONNA: Before I do that, however,
I do have a quick question for you and I would like to ask the audience
a question. And, Sue, can you post that question on the screen?
SUE: The question is, "Do
you provide personal counseling services online, by telephone or
both?"
PAT: And while we're waiting
for the responses, Donna, I know you're planning to talk with us
today about some of the guidelines counselors can follow in online
counseling. Will some of these guidelines also be applicable for
perhaps academic advisors or career counselors or other staff people,
for example?
DONNA: Yes, Pat, I think they're
applicable for both. I also think they're applicable in other areas
of student services.
Slide: Results of question
PAT: Okay. Sue, do we have
any results?
SUE: Let's go with what we
have — about eighty-two votes in so far. And here are their
responses. Almost 60% are saying both. They're interested in counseling
online and by phone.
Slide: American Counseling Association: ACA
Ethical Standards for Internet Online Counseling
DONNA: All right. The ACA
Internet online ethical standards were developed to provide the
best practice guidelines for counselors who wished to provide counseling
services online. I'll begin my presentation today with a summary
of the American Counseling Association ethical standards. If you're
interested and would like to look at the full text, you can find
that information at the American Counseling Association website;
that's www.counseling.org. You can also find links to other associations
who have developed standards, such as the National Career Development
Association, the National Board of Certified Counselors, on the
ACA home page. If you wish to look at the National Career Development
Association guidelines, if you look on the menu of the at the ACA
website, and find "divisions and branches," click on that
and you can go to the National Career Development Association and
you will find the guidelines that they have developed for providing
online career counseling.
One of the things that I'd like to mention to this group before
we move on is that when I'm referring to the standards, it does
say "client" in the American Counseling Association standards.
What I'd like to have you keep in mind is that you can substitute
that word and use "student." So, as I continue, think
about ways that some of the ethical guidelines might apply to you
on your campus.
PAT: And, Donna, just before
you move on for a second, I see we have some questions from the
audience related to whether results from these questions will be
available afterwards, and whether your slides will be available
afterwards, and the answer to both of those questions is yes.
DONNA: Yes. They will be available
at the WCET website.
SUE: The slides we're presenting
in the main HorizonLive window are available right now, at the WCET
website. The answers to the questions will be available when this
archived presentation is available online.
DONNA: Oh, great. Thanks for
the clarification.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Secured Sites
DONNA: All right. Moving on,
then, the first ethical standard is about secured sites. The question
that you want to ask is, "Does the counselor provide one-on-one
online counseling only through a secure website or e-mail communication
application which uses appropriate encryption technology?"
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Non-Secured
Sites
DONNA: Next is the non-secured
site, and if you have a non-secured site, it would contain only
general information and general e-mail applications.
PAT: So, Donna, how would
a student know if e-mail communication was encrypted or not?
DONNA: There should be some
notification on the Web page. Maybe it's password protected; there
may be a pop-up screen. There are a number of different ways. I'm
going to suggest a site that you might want to look at a little
later in my presentation, as well.
PAT: Oh, great.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: General Information
DONNA: I'd like to define
that for you a little bit. It can be provided on both a secure or
a non-secure site. Some examples of general information is that
it's non-client specific; it's usually topical information of general
interest. It may have third-party resources, referral information,
addresses and phone numbers. It may also include hotlinks to third
parties, websites such as licenser boards, certifying boards and
other resource information providers. The site content should be
kept up to date.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standard: Limits of Confidentiality
DONNA: Limits of confidentiality
is another ethical standard that we have and professional counselors
should inform the client of the limits of confidentiality and identify
foreseeable situations in which confidentiality must be breached
in light of the law in both the state in which the client is located
and the state in which the counselor is licensed. The American Counseling
Association standards state that a licensed professional counselor
should only practice in other states that have licensure. What I'd
like to say to you is that not all states have licensure and, if
you have a licensed professional counselor providing online services
other than general information across borders, they should probably
check their license licensure laws and see, because they're different
in every state.
PAT: So this makes serving
some distance students very difficult, I would think, for counselors?
Donna, if there's some place where it's easy for counselors to find
out about licensure in other states, and what the laws might be
that would apply to online counseling?
DONNA: Yes, Pat. In my research
I found several places. One I would like to mention is the American
Association of State Counseling Boards, and that's at www.aascb.org.
There are other places where you can find that. I'm going to show
you a place where it will be on the cybercounsel site later. The
other thing that I'd like to mention is, I'm talking about licensed
professional counselors right now and sites where you can find out
information about their law. For those of you who have licensed
psychologists or social workers, you may want to start with checking
with your local board.
PAT: Okay.
DONNA: Our audience may know
of some other places. If you do, please enter that information in
the chat box and share it with us.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Security of
Sites
DONNA: I'd like to talk a
little bit about site security at this point. There should be notification
that information transmitted over the site may not be secure. There
should be notification if the site is encrypted, and there should
be notification about and special software requirements and how
it is provided. Security information should be viewable at all Web
pages. Professional counselors should identify themselves. There
should be readily visible notice advising the clients of identities
of all professional counselors who will have access to the information
transmitted by the client, provided the background information,
the counselor should include their education, their licensure, their
certification, and their area of practice.
Professional counselors should identify clients, verify identity
and obtain alternative methods of contacting clients in emergency
situations. As part of the agreement to provide professional counseling
online, the client would have to provide contact information. So
they need to know how to get ahold of them in an emergency situation.
PAT: This seems like a particularly
important standard if you're doing online counseling you never know
when your server or your client's server is going to be going down,
I would think. So, do you need permission, Donna, from the client
to contact him or her in other ways, like by phone or by phone at
work, for example, or at home or by mail? I would think for privacy
reasons you would have to, is that correct?
DONNA: Yes. That's correct,
Pat, and this should be part of your agreement for service.
PAT: Okay. So that would be
something you would get from the client right up front?
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Professional
Counselor Identification
DONNA: Right. And we're going
to talk a little bit about client waivers and some things, so I
think that that could certainly be included in that. So moving on,
then, with client waivers. The client acknowledges the limitations
inherent in insuring client confidentiality of information transmitted
through online counseling.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Client Information;
Client Waiver
DONNA: If information is accessed
by unauthorized third parties, the client needs to know that that
may happen and that they should waive client privilege at that point,
because we never know when someone might get into our information.
Client waivers if you need to, they should also be referred to,
you know, other traditional methods of counseling, if it's necessary.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Record of Electronic
Communication
DONNA: Should also let people
know about recorded electronic communication. It's important to
maintain appropriate procedures to ensure the safety of confidentiality
of client information acquired through electronic communication.
You should inform the client — and I said and/or student —
about the length of time for the method of preserving a session
transcripts. Additional information about client communication would
be to warn about technology failures and time delays.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: HIPAA Law
DONNA: Another thing that
I want to share with the group, Pat, is a new Act that has been
passed and some of the audience may be familiar with this. It's
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,
better know as HIPAA. It made it the responsibility of the Health
and Human Services Department to establish guidelines for the electronic
transmission of health information. The law goes into effect this
year. I don't have the exact data on that, but it is to go into
effect this year. If you're interested in more information about
HIPAA, the URLs will be posted at the WCET website.
PAT: Okay. Well, that'd be
good for people to check into that. Wonder if we could go step back
just a minute, and you were talking about records of electronic
communication. Now, I'm wondering how many campuses have electronic
portfolios for their students, where a section might be reserved
for counselor notes? I'd like to ask our audience to tell us if
their campus has such a system and maybe you could tell us a little
bit about the functionality that the electronic portfolio system
uses, if you are using such a system. So, we'll perhaps move on,
but perhaps people could talk about that.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Electronic
Transfer of Client Information
DONNA: Right. The client should
also be warned if there's going to be confidential information transferred
between both a professional counselor and an authorized recipient,
then they should also have a secure site, and again, the client
should sign a waiver. There should be client consent. I know the
HIPAA law speaks to that directly. I just want to say one more thing
about the HIPAA law, and that's not just for counselors in terms
of electronic transfer of information, that's the whole healthcare
field.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Establishing
the Online Counseling Relationship
DONNA: Let's talk about establishing
a relationship for online counseling. It's important to develop
an appropriate intake procedure, determine whether online counseling
is appropriate and, if not, make the appropriate referrals. It's
also important to notify people of specific limitations, risks,
and benefits. When you're establishing the online counseling relationship,
you should ensure that the clients are intellectually, emotionally
and physically capable of using online counseling services, and
of understanding the potential risk and/or limitations.
PAT: I see, Donna, we have
several people that have responded, that they are using some aspects
of an electronic portfolio process. Some are in Banner, some are
using other software to do this.
DONNA: Oh, right.
PAT: So, I hope people will
continue to share what their experiences are with electronic portfolios.
In your opinion, Donna, are there some situations which you think
are appropriate and some are just clearly not for online counseling
services?
DONNA: You know, Pat, I've
been thinking about that and I've decided that, in some ways, this
is a very gray area. But I also think that it's important for the
counselors to use their best judgment. And I think, specifically,
in a crisis situation, it's important to let people know how to
get hold of someone as soon as possible. I personally would not
want to be dealing with a suicidal person online, but, it could
happen, and that might be the best way to deal with it until you
can get them to an actual person.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Counseling
Plans
DONNA: Yes. Talk about counseling
plans at this point, and what you need to do is develop individual
online counseling plans. If online counseling is inappropriate,
once again it's important to keep the idea of referring people to
an appropriate method of counseling.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Continuing
Coverage
DONNA: It's also important
to think about continuing coverage. You should provide the client
with a schedule of times which, you know, when the online counseling
services will be available. You need to anticipate your response
time and you also need to provide emergency contact information
and other professional counselor contact information. I guess I'd
like to say a little bit more about this particular one in terms
of contact information and response time. When people send a message,
they often don't know how soon they're going to hear from you and
my experience has been just in preparing for this that I've sent
messages to numerous people and am still waiting to hear from them.
It would be nice to know that it's going to be a week or two days
or fifteen minutes. So keep that in mind; it's just common courtesy,
I think, if nothing else, as well as being in the ethical guidelines.
The other thing that I'd like to mention in talking about this
idea of coverage and dealing with distance students, particularly
people that are a long way away from the campus and of maybe having
the emergency contact information. I think we all know and understand,
because of distances, that we don't always have someone readily
available in our community. I think it's the counselor's responsibility
to try to provide the best information possible and the closest
contacts for folks.
PAT: Okay. Donna, let's ask
our audience at this point how many of their campuses have a policy
on response time to e-mail inquiries to counselors? I see that we're
getting some conversation here about cybercounseling and retention
and I'm just wondering if retention has anything to do with how
quickly a response to a student might come via e-mail? So, it’d
be interesting to see if there are policies, or if you don't have
a policy but you have a general practice that says, “We respond
within twenty-four hours or forty-eight hours,” something like that.
It'd be interesting to know that.
DONNA: I think that's a really
interesting question about response time and retention. And it brings
to mind a little side that I wanted to mention to this group, and
that is we need research at this point to see how effective some
of these things are and this may be helpful in looking at that whole
issue.
PAT: Okay. We're starting
to get some responses everywhere from “no policy” or “within twenty-four
hours, seventy-two hours.” That'd we'll continue to watch that as
results come in.
DONNA: Okay. This is great.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Boundaries
of Competence
DONNA: Boundaries of competence
is the next area that I'd like to talk about. And just wanted to
remind folks that they should be providing online counseling services
only in practice areas of expertise. I think for those professional
counselors in the audience that's always an issue for us, when we
start to see a lot of things emerge on the Net that we question
in terms of who the providers are and what their credentials and
training are. So it's important to let people you know, to stay
within our boundaries.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Minor of Incompetent
Clients
DONNA: Another area would
be the area of dealing with minor or incompetent clients. And we
should be looking at verifying the client's age, obtain written
consent of a legal guardian and/or other legal representatives if
we're dealing with a minor.
PAT: Now, in those cases,
Donna, I would assume, at least during office hours, the counselors
could verify the information about an age, at least, with the Registrar's
Office. Of course, counseling office would still need to obtain
consent from the guardian, I would think, or legal representative,
but is that just usual practice, to check with the Registrar's Office,
on age?
DONNA: I believe people can
do that and I also think, when I was thinking about this particular
ethical standard, I think it would be a real advantage for a counselor
on a campus to be able to access the student records and to verify
age.
PAT: I did notice that we
had a question from someone saying that their campus wanted to provide
some counseling services to prospective students. They're not quite
yet students. That would create another little wrinkle there.
DONNA: Yes, it would. And
I think it would be important for them to define what kind of counseling
services they're going to provide. You know, if it's just general
information or if it's going to be dealing with more personal issues
that the student might have.
Slide: ACA Ethical Standards: Legal Considerations
DONNA: There are legal considerations
when you're providing online services. It's important to look at
liability insurance and if you have coverage for online counseling.
It's important to know your state and local statutes, rules, regulations
and ordinances. You should be aware of your code of professional
membership and certifying boards, professional membership and seek
appropriate legal and technical assistance in the development of
online counseling services.
PAT: Let's ask the audience
another yes/no question. "Does your institution have a liability
policy that covers online counseling? Yes or no." Use the green
buttons — they're above my picture — for "yes,"
or the red "no" button to indicate whether your campus
has a liability policy covering online counseling. I'm mentioning
that specifically.
DONNA: Okay, and I guess while
we're waiting for the vote, Sue, you'll be giving us that information
a little bit later. I just wanted to mention that, if you're a member
of the American Counseling Association, you have agreed to these
standards. If you're not a member of the American Counseling Association,
I believe the standards provide a good general practice and some
guidelines in terms of, you know, what you can follow. Do you have
some results for us, Sue?
SUE: Three "yes,"
thirty-eight "no," and thirty "question mark."
DONNA: Oh, good.
PAT: So but, maybe the four
could tell us which institutions have liability policies that specifically
mention online counseling coverage, so people could maybe contact
them for more information at a later time.
DONNA: Great.
Slide: Counseling Websites
DONNA: What we're going to
do now is visit a few sites of interest and I'd like to share some
of my observations. One of the suggestions that I would like to
make to you is that, as we visit some of these sites, you may want
to bookmark them and then return to those sites at a later time,
when you have more time to take a look at them.
Slide: Websites: Counseling Center Village:
http://ub-bounseling.buffalo.edu/ccv.html
DONNA: So the first site we're
going to go to now is the Counseling Center Village. This particular
home page is just packed with information and I think a lot of it
very helpful. It has a directory of about three hundred colleges
and universities. It's sponsored by the American College and Personnel
Association, and it's housed at State University of New York and
Buffalo. We're looking at their home page right now, and what I
would like to do is start by taking you to the counseling center
directory. And let's just take a quick look at this directory and
this is the one that has almost three hundred college and university
sites listed. So click on that and once that page opens, we're going
to do what we have to do to access the directory. And at the very
top where it says "directory" on your left hand side,
it says "all types" and if you'll just click on that and
go to the bottom of that little segment there where it says "list"
and click on "list", that will take you to the beginning
of the list of about three hundred colleges.
Slide: Counseling Center Directory
DONNA: This is a little bit
slow, but it will come up, and I just wanted you to see this so
you have a sense of the kind of information that's available in
terms of contact information, it gives you a little description
of the site and then how to access it. So it has the URLs for each
campus. The other thing that I wanted to mention is, don't be deceived
by their description because, what I have found, on this particular
site, is that there is a lot more information at each college than
one would initially believe.
Slide: Virtual Pamphlets
DONNA: Go to the top of your
screen now there on the left, where it says the counseling village
or counseling center village home page, and click on that, and move
to the next area of virtual pamphlets. Go ahead and click on virtual
pamphlets, and what you'll find here is a list of virtual pamphlets.
It's a collection of pamphlets related to various issues. You will
find that most of the counseling sites that are listed at this particular
site will have access to those pamphlets and I think you can, you
know, you can go ahead and contact these folks and have access to
these. So just wanted to mention that. Let's go back to the upper
left hand corner then, under the little house, back to counseling
center village.
Slide: Technical Assistance
DONNA: The next area that
I wanted to mention is technical assistance. We're not going to
go there, but I found that to be very interesting and very helpful
if you're looking at improving or creating a Web page. There’s lots
of information there.
Slide: Practice Resources
DONNA: The next area I'd like
to look at then is for you to click on practice resources and, again,
what this does is provide you a lot of information about various
resources and, of course, on the right hand side, it has a link
to the American Counseling Association. So that's why I had to show
you this. You know, I always have to get my plug in.
Slide: At the Office
DONNA: All right, what I'd
like to have you do then is go back to the home page one more time
and I also wanted to mention "at the office." And I don't
know about the rest of you, but when people start telling me I need
intake forms and things, I think “Oh, no, I have to develop all
of this myself.” Well, what these folks have done is they have a
lot of that information on that site and they're willing to share
that with you. So, again, that's another interesting resource. So
I hope you will find this particular resource of use.
PAT: This is a great site,
Donna, because if you were building your own site, you could quickly
see what others are doing and find good models for your service,
or improve, revise what you're doing based on what you see from
some of the other institutions here.
DONNA: Great. Yeah, I think
it's a great reference site. This has just been a great find for
me. On this let's go ahead and close that page, then, and move on.
During my search, I looked for similarities and differences and
I was looking for some unique aspects of a site. Several colleges
had unique services that I would like to mention.
So we've closed the counseling village site now and you should be
looking at the HorizonLive window.
Slide: Appalachian State University: Uncle
Sigmund: http://www.unclesigmund.appstate.edu/
DONNA: We're only going to
visit a few of the sites that I'm going to mention. And the first
one is just one that I'm going to mention, which is the Appalachian
State University has a site called Uncle Sigmund. It's an online
counselor and it has a list of frequently asked questions and gives
responses. I'd like to call your attention to their privacy statement
and emergency contact information. You may wish to visit this site
at a later time. I wanted to say something about Uncle Sigmund.
Now, it'll come back to me. Okay?
Slide: Go Ask Alice: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/index.html
DONNA: We're going to go on,
then, and we're going to look at "Go Ask Alice." Go Ask
Alice is an interactive question and answer advice line which answers
questions on a variety of topics, including relationships, fitness
and nutrition, drugs, sex, alcohol, stress. Questions are answered
anonymously and publicly. Some colleges have links to this site.
Remember you can bookmark it. One of the things that I'd like to
do with this site, and just mention to you that I did call Columbia
and I talked to one of their secretaries and asked them, I said,
"Does a real live person man this site?" And they almost
laughed at me and they said, "Yes, indeed."
Slide: Help For Friends who are Drinking
Too Much
DONNA: So keep in mind that
real people are doing this and let's do something just for fun at
the "Go Ask Alice" site. Take a go to the alcohol, nicotine
and other drugs, because I know alcohol on campus is a big issue
at times. Click on that button and what you will see is a list of
questions that have been asked about drugs and alcohol. What I'd
like to have you do is click on "help for friends who drink
too much." Now, as a counselor, I know that I've had people
in my office that have asked me questions about how they should
approach a friend that they're concerned about. If you're having
trouble finding that link, it looks like it's about the sixth one
down. Okay? And so I hope all of you have found that. Let's go ahead
and click on that and what I'd like to have you see, without spending
too much time on that, is the question that the concerned friend
asked, and then also the type of information that they received
related to their question.
DONNA: For those of you that
may not have been able to follow on that, it's just an example of
the type of information that is, you know, available. And if you
weren't able to follow, I apologize. But you can access the site,
and I hope you will. I hope you'll take a look at it.
PAT: Now, is it a subscription
service that Columbia offers, or is this just a free service to
other institutions?
DONNA: It's a free service
to other institutions and if you look on the home page of "Go
Ask Alice" and you go to where it says “contact us and collaborations,”
they will give you the information there.
Slide: Dear Uncle Ezra: www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Dialogs/EZRA
DONNA: Okay, let's move on,
then. We've had a little glimpse at "Go Ask Alice." Let's
talk a little bit about Cornell University has a site called "Dear
Uncle Ezra," which is an online counselor who dispenses advice
to students anonymously. This was established in 1986, when it was
started by the Assistant Dean of Students. Questions range from
the serious to the silly. What I would say about "Go Ask Alice"
is I saw some pretty silly questions in that one too. Okay?
PAT: It'd be interesting to
know, among our audience, how many campuses have counselors on-call
for e-mail responses. You know, something like an instant messaging
or a chat room. If you have a way in which you provide instant response
— someone staffing e-mail constantly or chat room, would you
please indicate "yes" on the "yes" button, above
Donna's head there. Or if you do not, if you'll put "no."
Slide: Concerned Charlie: http://www.bsu.edu/students/cpsc/charlie.htm
DONNA: Some other areas that
I'll mention is that Ball State University has something called
"Concerned Charlie," which is an online advice column.
Slide: SpiderNet at Morehouse College: http://www.morehouse.edu/wellnessresourcecenter/
DONNA: And now we're going
to go to another site that I found to be interesting and that is
housed at Morehouse University. And it's the Wellness Resource Center.
If you look through this, one of the things you can start seeing
the kind of services they provide and they talk to you a little
bit about, you know, their purpose. You know, they've got a hotlink
to student affairs as you go down the page. And what I'd like to
have you do now is continue down the page until you find the number
three and you'll see that there's a hotlink to SpiderNet and I hope
that, you know, you're all able to do this. But if not, you know,
hang in there with us. And then, if you have questions afterwards,
you can also contact me about this.
At the bottom of this page, where it says SpiderNet by number three,
if you've found that, go ahead and click on that and you will come
to the next page which says, "To register for SpiderNet"
and, at the end of that line, it says "click here," go
ahead and click on that. And then you will find a page that says
SpiderNet and it looks like lots of little spider nets in the background.
On the left hand side, it says, "For registered users,"
and then it has, if you want to be part of the chat, and streaming
video, then you need Netscape and you need Microsoft, if you see
that.
This is one of the things that I think I mentioned earlier about
the ethical standards, which is you need to provide the information
for you know, your students in terms of what kind of software, what
kind of connections and things they need to be able to access the
information. And I think that we've probably learned that as we've
been providing services in terms of distance ed classes, that, you
know, it's a good reminder.
Let's move over to the right, now, and look at the first one where
it says "Register a handle or a nickname." And then you'll
see in darker print it says "Disclaimer." I'd like to
have you click on that and go to the "Participant in privacy
policy." And just kind of scan this a little bit, go through,
take a look at it. You'll see, you know, who the monitor is. It
mentions a psychiatrist that's monitoring this site. It tells you
what you can talk about, what you should do in emergencies, gives
you what to do if you don't get an immediate response. All things
that I talked about a little earlier when I was talking about the
ethical standards. And then they have, at the bottom of the page,
they have, you know, a place where you can say "Yes, I agree
to this," or "No, I disagree." So it's up to you
to make that decision. The other thing, knowing what the boundaries
are going to be and what you're agreeing to. The other thing that
I wanted to mention about this site is that there is some emphasis
at this site for Afro-American students. So let's go ahead and close
that window.
Slide: Paging Dr. WEBster: http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/Counseling/Interact/int_drwb.htm
DONNA: Some other areas that
I looked at, then, was "Paging Dr. WEBster," from the
University of Maryland at College Park and is an interactive question
and answer service.
Slide: Boston University: http://www.bu.edu/counseling/index.htm
DONNA: Then I looked at Boston
University. It has a place where you can send e-mail to a counselor
and one of the things that you might want to take a look at is their
disclaimer.
Slide: Cybercounseling / Cyberlearning
DONNA: Moving on now, I'd
like to talk to you a little bit about cybercounseling and cyberlearning.
Cybercounseling and Cyberlearning Strategies and Resources for the
Millennium is a book that we published during my presidency. And
the purpose of it was to address best practices and guidance for
counselors in this emerging field. Right now, I think the two editors
of the book, Dr. Gary Walz and Dr. John Bloom, are in the process
of preparing the next edition of that book, and I believe it's to
come out some time next year.
Slide: Cybercounsel Site: http://cybercounsel.uncg.edu/
DONNA: I'd also like to mention
that the cybercounseling site was developed to supplement the information
in the book and provide supports for counselors. We're going to
take a quick look at that site, and again, you may want to bookmark
that site. I'm going to just talk from the top of my head about
this site because my computer just said it's not responding. Is
that happening to you, as well, Pat?
PAT: I was gonna mention that,
in the chat box, another site that was mentioned was www.residentassistant.org.
DONNA: Oh, right.
PAT: And a good source of
additional information.
DONNA: Oh, great. Okay. Well,
I think I can talk about a cyberlearning site a little bit without
having to see it, so I'm going to go ahead and do that. When you
look at the cybercounseling/cyberlearning site, you'll see that,
on the left hand side, there's a menu and it says "monograph."
If you will click on the monograph, it will take you to the cyberlearning
the original cyberlearning home page, and if you look at that site,
you will find an area there where it says something like "lectures"
or it may say "monograph.”
DONNA: Okay, now click on
"monograph," and you should have the original cybercounseling
site. The one that's black. You see. And then, if you look on that
page, there should be something that says "presentations."
PAT: Presentation library?
DONNA: Yes.
PAT: Okay.
DONNA: I think that's it.
And on that, if you go to that and you go to the bottom of the page,
there should be something on there by Dr. John Bloom that says “licensure
laws.”
PAT: Right. It's the second
one from the bottom.
DONNA: Okay, did you find
it?
PAT: Yes. It's state counselor
licensure board Web pages.
DONNA: Okay. Great. Then on
that one, if, as we were talking earlier about licensure laws and
how to access information, Dr. Bloom has put together a great grid
that shows you how to contact all the licensing boards and, you
know, what they require, and some things like that. Now, I checked
that the other day and I was unable to access that particular presentation.
However, I know they're working on it. So maybe at a later time,
you may want to go back and visit that, if you're looking for a
reference back to licensure boards.
PAT: Great. Well, this is
an excellent book and I would encourage those that are interested
in this topic to think about purchasing it. It’s available from
the ACA website, isn't it, Donna?
DONNA: Yes, it is, Pat. What
you can do is you can go to acabooks.com and you should be able
to order it that way. Also there's a phone number that you can call.
It's 800-347-6647, extension 222. What I'd like to mention is there's
also a members only site to purchase books and, if you're a member,
you can get them for less money.
SUE: You sure do plug ACA,
don't you?
DONNA: Oh, you know, what
can I say? Being an old past-president, that's the way it goes.
Slide: Rio Hondo College: http://www/rh.cc.ca.us/student_services/Counseling
DONNA: All righty. There are
a couple of community colleges that I'd like to visit now. The ones
that I mentioned earlier were housed at the university regular four-year
college, and so let's go to Rio Hondo Community College which is
in the Los Angeles area of California and take a look at their site.
Oh, goodie, I've got this one.
PAT: Oh, good.
DONNA: So, there are just
a few things that I'd like to point out to you. The first one is
the general information. So if you can click on "general information,"
and go to that, what you'll see then, and again, this speaks to
some of the things that I talked about earlier, which is contact
information, how to get in touch with the counselors. That's always
one of the things that I find to be incredibly frustrating, is when
I don't know how to get ahold of someone. I'd like to move on down
the menu then, and go back to the home page and go to "meet
the counselors," and that's about the sixth bullet down on
that page. And on the part where you see the picture of the Dean
of Counseling. So let's look at “meet the counselors” just for fun.
I really like this site because what it does is it gives you a picture
of the counselor, so you can identify them and that might help you
in deciding, you know, who you might want to talk to. It also gives
you their credentials, and it gives you a little statement about
them in terms of how long they've been at the college or special
interests that they have.
PAT: And then some people
don't necessarily like having their photograph on the Web, but I
really think it's nice in this particular instance where you're
doing personal counseling, to be able to see the person that you're
going to work with.
DONNA: Yeah, I think it is,
too, even though I don't like to have my picture taken. It's a good
idea. I know they wanted my picture for the first career planning
course that I taught online. So it took them a long time to get
a good one, though. All right. A couple more things I'd like to
show you on the Rio Hondo site, which is the next one down, under
the "meet the counselor," where it says — so you
need to go back to the home page and then go, after “meet the counselor,”
“submit a question to an online counselor.” And this is like an
intake form or it is an intake form that gives you know, gives the
counselor a little bit of background information and, you know,
you can ask your question, so it gives the counselor an opportunity
to get back to you.
The last thing that I'd like to look at on this site, then, and
I'll just mention it to you is “Web tools.” And I think this just
has some good general information about various Web tools that you
can download and that you may want to use at some point. So it's
got, like, the Internet toolkit, that type of thing. I happen to
be a presenter with Jennifer Lopez and it was interesting to hear
her talk about her site and what they did in developing the site.
And what I'd like to mention to you is just a little summary that
she shared with the group when she was talking about this site and
right now, what she was talking about is their existing features,
and she talked about it being e-mail based, that their filing and
storage is decentralized, that it is a non-secured site, it is referral-based,
it has limited access, and they have a single coordinator.
Let me talk to you about their future plans, because this is one
of the things that I'd like to mention. And that is, they're looking
at making it more Web-based. They've got Web database systems centralized.
They're making their site secured and confidential. They have check-in
and check-out. They're going to be providing unlimited access, and
there will be multiple coordinators for this site. And, you know,
those are not part of all the things that I've talked about, but
I just thought that that would be of interest.
Slide: Rogue Community College: http://www.rogue.cc.or.us/Counseling
DONNA: We have one more site
that we are going to visit now and that is Rogue Community College.
SUE: Donna, while that's loading,
I'd like to recap our last polling question.
DONNA: Oh, great.
SUE: So, whether campuses
have some one online and responsible for responding quickly to emails?
DONNA: Yes.
SUE: Perhaps even in instant
messaging, or is it sort of asynchronous communication. And it looks
like the response is 37 to 3, the answer is asynchronous communication.
DONNA: Okay. All right. We're
going to go ahead and click on Rogue Community College now. Once
again, I'm having a great technical failure here. So hang in there
with me and we will go to Rogue. The first thing that I would like
to point out to the audience is, if you look at the home page, the
directory is very, very clear on this one and you can go to personal
counseling.
And so I'd like to have you go ahead and go to personal counseling
and just click on that. And while I'm getting myself set up again,
when you look at the personal counseling site, what I'd like to
just point out to you is that it just basically gives some reassuring
information to students about possibly having issues they may want
to see a counselor about. If you look on down the line, here's a
list of possible things that they may want to talk to them about.
It also has a hotlink to off-campus counseling sites. It also has
a hotlink to their confidentiality statement. If you continue on
down the page, toward the bottom of the page, it talks a little
bit about contact and files are protected by confidentiality regulations,
which I think is one of the things that we discussed and it also
has a "meet the counselor" link. So why don't you go ahead
and just click on the "meet the counselor" link and we'll
take a look at that. And I hope all of you have "meet the counselor"
at this point.
No pictures this time, but what it has is a hotlink to the counselor.
It also tells you what their area of service is. And then it also,
because they do have campuses in different locations, is it tells
you what where they're housed. You know, where they’re located.
PAT: And it looks very user
friendly.
Slide: Therapy Online: http://therapyonline.ca
DONNA: Yes, I think it is.
There’s one more area that I’d like to mention, Therapy Online.
Now, this is a private group that is providing online therapy and
they're located in Canada. Their website is just therapyonline.ca.
Some of the biggest issues if you're a counselor and you're trying
to provide services for people are the confidentiality issues. This
particular group has something called “therapy e-mail” and they
have private e-mail and they do have some software and some things
that they use to assure the privacy of their conversation. It's
not an academic institution, however, it has a lot of good information
and I would just like to have the group, at some point, visit that
site.
PAT: Well, it's been really
interesting seeing these various sites. I wonder if our audience
could recommend some other campuses or resource sites that they
think might be of interest to the attendees today, and if you know
of some other sites or other campuses, if you could just enter that
information in the chat box, that'd be great.
DONNA: Right. It's always
good to see what other people are doing.
Slide: Summary
DONNA: Right. What I'd like
to do then is go ahead and summarize, you know, what I've been talking
about. The ACA Ethical Guidelines provide a guide to use when developing
or providing online service. All the sites reviewed were very different
in design. Most used some of the guidelines. I noticed that most
of the sites that were linked from the Counseling Village appeared
to have some basic criteria they followed. Most sites had minimal
or did not provide online counseling services, and I think that
little survey we just took, you know, kind of said most of it was,
you know, asynchronous, as opposed to synchronous, counseling services.
The last thing I'd like to say about this then is that technology
improves counselors will provide more services. The first generation
of sites have been created; now it's time to move to the next steps.
And I think I mentioned that about Rio Hondo and it looks like that's
exactly what they're doing.
Slide: Donna Ford, MS, NCC, LPC: Donnaford@aol.com
DONNA: I've provided some
contact information for you. If you have questions, thoughts, ideas,
please feel fill to contact me. And I just want to thank you for
letting me join you today and share my thoughts about online counseling.
PAT: Well, Donna, on behalf
of WCET and all of our attendees, thank you very much for a very
interesting presentation full of some excellent resources.
DONNA: Great.
PAT: I think it's going to
be very interesting to watch this field evolve as campuses figure
out how to use these various online technologies. And if you're
willing to stay with us a little bit longer, I'd like to give the
audience some more opportunity to put some questions in the chat
box that you could respond to at the conclusion of this presentation.
DONNA: Oh, great. I'd be happy
to.
Slide: WECT Site: http://www.wcet.info
SUE: And while your questions
are pouring in for Donna, I'm going to post now our WCET website.
And please bookmark it if you haven't already. It came up huge on
my screen. There we go. I put it down to the side. You can access
all of our webcasts from our site that were recorded and should
be available anywhere from a couple of days to a week. So check
back in and if you want to see it all again and especially review
what's been in the chat box or answers to questions, go ahead and
look at that archive version. And then sign up - soon - for the
next Web cast
Slide: Providing Student Services to Distance
Learners Web cast Series:
Next: Cyndi Rowland, Project Director of WebAIM:
Improving Web Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities
DONNA: Our next Web cast will
be on February 13th at noon, Mountain Time. Dr. Cindy Rowland, who
is the Project Director at WebAIM, a Learning Anytime, Anywhere
partnership project on Web accessibility that's based at Utah State
University will be our special guest. Cindy will discuss with us
what's involved in making your Web services accessible for students
with disabilities. And we're waiting now for some questions to come
in and while you're phrasing those questions for Donna, Sue, could
you put the evaluation up on the screen? We'd like to ask you to
provide us with a little bit of input about today's presentation,
so that we can continue to have this series meet your needs. And
while that evaluation's up, I see we have one question which is
about how to verify that the person that the person you are advising
is actually the person they say they are. Donna, if you want to
think about that one for a little bit. I'll give this another couple
minutes or two for some questions to come in.
DONNA: Pat, do you want me
to go ahead and try to answer that as a question at this point?
PAT: Sure.
DONNA: That's a great question
and I think that that's one of the concerns and I think, as all
of us know, the more we need security, the more we're asking students
to provide ID for us and a variety of things. So I think what you
have to do is, you know, do your best to verify who they are. You
might verify that indeed they are a student at your campus if you
have some concerns and some things like that, and at some point,
you know, it's going to have to be the student's responsibility
to provide accurate information. That's my best guess right now.
PAT: Okay. Let's see, do we
have any other questions coming here? Now we're scanning up through
the top. See college was it collegeboard.com was mentioned as the
place, here's a question: “What about FERPA?” And this is a great
entrée to say that we will have a presentation in March having
to do with the back end system that's supporting electronically
some of the student record systems that are supporting some of our
integrated personalized student services and we'll have Bill Haid
who is a past-president of AACRAO here who will address FERPA regulations.
Donna, would you like to comment on those?
DONNA: You know, Pat, I'm
not as familiar with those as I should be, so I think I'll just
not try to reply to that particular one.
PAT: Okay, well, so we'll
ask Michael to attend in March so he can ask his questions to Bill
at that time.
DONNA: Sure.
DONNA: I think that would
be good and I think I probably should attend as well.
PAT: Okay. You have another
one here from Linda Gooding: “What is your sense of how a majority
of counselors with whom you've talked feel about cybercounseling
and the complex issues that surround it?”
DONNA: I love this question.
Okay, great.
PAT: Thanks, Linda, for asking.
DONNA: Yes, thank you for
asking that one. I would say that I think most counselors are a
little resistant to the whole idea. They really want the human touch.
They want the face-to-face contact and, you know, and they have
a lot of concerns about confidentiality. And all I would say is,
good for them. I think it's really important to keep those things
in mind when you're preparing something like this and providing
services online. Also think that as time progresses and they start
feeling a little more secure about technology, and their ability
to provide information online and services online, that they will
eventually, you know, want to be doing this. So the adventuresome
ones, the entrepreneurs, are already out there working on this.
The more conservative group are still hanging in there, and I would
say that that is the majority of them at this point. I'm hoping
they'll start feeling more comfortable because I do think that this
is a great way for us to augment our services. And also I'm thinking
that, once we're up and running, and video technology improves a
little more — and I've seen some that's really good —
that, when a counselor can see somebody I think they're going to
be a lot more willing to be able to do something like this.
PAT: So it's kind of like
what's happened in distance learning, where we've had the early
adopters with online learning and now we're getting many others
that have seen that it works and they're interested in doing it
also.
DONNA: I was at a conference
once where they said, you know, “We're so busy protecting the public
so the public doesn't worry about whether they're protected or not.”
So, I think that's probably true.
PAT: Okay, there was a question
here about, “What are your thoughts, Donna, on cybercounseling students
with disabilities?”
DONNA: Well, actually, I think
it could be a benefit to them. And that's one of the areas that
I forgot to mention earlier, where I think the HIPAA laws certainly
would affect any kind of electronic transfer of information. But
I personally think that the computer can open the door to a lot
of folks with a disability that has not been open to them before.
PAT: Great. Here's another
question: “Can you tell us any special issues or concerns to be
aware of when conducting an online advising or counseling session?”
DONNA: Oh, that's a big question.
PAT: Coming from Carla Benoit.
DONNA: Uh huh. I think we
talked about a lot of those as I went through the ethical standards
and I just think that it's important to provide a quality service
that you feel good about and that you've have done everything that
you can do to assure best practice for the people that you're serving.
And if you've done that, then I think, you know, there certainly
will be some risk in this. Probably one of the biggest issues coming
up that I can think of is providing services across borders. And,
you know, that could maybe not so much for advising, but certainly
if you're a licensed professional counselor and depending on what
you're doing. Hasn't been an issue yet, but my guess is that, in
the future, it may be.
PAT: From Tracy Haney - I'm
not sure I pronounced that correctly. “How can academic advisors
use counseling example referrals, other ways?”
DONNA: I think if you're providing
online services in terms of classes to take, that type of thing,
there may be some kind of a hint from people when they're talking
to you, if you get a clue from somebody, you may be able to refer
them. You might ask them some kind of a question if they feel like
they need more service, or would it be helpful to talk to a counselor.
I think I could see that happening.
PAT: Okay. Sue, are you seeing
any other questions that we missed here?
SUE: The comments I've noticed
in the chat box mostly have to do with a concern about creating
a distance between students and people who provide all kinds of
services. In the online context, it's much easier to miss the affect
and emotion that come through pretty easily in in-person communication.
DONNA: Yeah. I would agree
with that. I think that's one of the biggest issues that counselors
have. The cybercounseling book, one of the chapters speaks to how
you frame your questions and how you write to people in terms of
trying to make a more human contact. You know, to have more human
contact. And so it brings us to a point where we have the counselors
have to be better at communicating and writing and getting the kind
of information that they want from people. Also I think the younger
generation, this is the way they communicate. And it's something
that we have to sort of accept and get ready for and know that that's
what's going to happen.
PAT: Well, Laura H. has a
good comment here. It says a client has to want to do it, just like
anything else.
DONNA: That's right.
PAT: Well, and I think, increasingly,
we'll find younger people will be more comfortable with this environment,
and think of it as more of a normal relationship than perhaps some
of us who are older. "Does academic advising follow the same
guidelines as counseling?" is the question coming from Tracy
B.
DONNA: No. Not that I'm aware
of. Maybe in the academic advising groups and associations, they
may have developed something, but I'm not aware of it. All I would
say is, if you are an academic advisor, the type of things that
my experience has been, that you're always at a decision point when
you're providing academic information. And there are always personal
issues going on with people. And you always have to decide, you
know, what you're going to do and when to refer. And so being aware
of these guidelines and maybe adopting some of them if you wish
to is probably not a bad idea.
PAT: We might mention here
that we did have a presentation in November from Mike Leonard who
spoke about guidelines that are available from NACADA, which is
the National Academic Advising Association, and so that presentation
is archived and people may want to refer to it. And I think, Sue,
you have his slides and resources available for people too.
SUE: Yes. You can access the
archived Web cast— and you can also go straight to Mike's
PowerPoint slides, as well as his online resources from our website,
www.wiche.edu/wcet. Follow the links to “webcasts.”
PAT: Okay. Any more questions?
About another minute or two here for your last questions.
DONNA: Pat, could I just mention
something while we're waiting for our last question. I just wanted
to remind people — because I was talking about the American
Counseling Association and I was mostly talking about licensed professional
counselors, and counselors in general — if you are a licensed
psychologist or social worker it's important to check with your
professional association and your licensure boards if you're concerned
about standards and ethical guidelines.
SUE: Bing Walker asked a very
good question about cultural issues. Bing says that in some cultures,
people are not encouraged to seek counseling services and she asks,
"Do you think that cybercounseling will open doors for these
people to seek the help that they need?"
DONNA: Well, what I would
say is I hope so. You know, I think as we become more dependent
on the Internet and people become more comfortable with it, I'm
hoping people from various cultures will use this and that's why
I mentioned SpiderNet because that site is one that has more of
an orientation for african-american students; it has more information
for them. There was one other site that I was going to mention when
we were there. I forgot to do that and don't remember now. I think
it was at the Counseling Center Village and down at the bottom it
has a little button you can push if you want to ask a question in
a different language. So some of those sites have that kind of instant
translation, which I think speaks a little bit to some cultural
issues.
PAT: Well, looks like we've
run our course here on terms of the number of questions that are
coming in. Donna, thanks again very much for being willing to stay
with us a little bit longer and to answer people's questions. I
hope that everyone enjoyed the presentation. Thank you for attending.
And we look forward to meeting you online again on February 13th.
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