The use of
technological tools to teach basic skills in counselor education and
supervision has evolved steadily over the years. From audiotape to videotape,
from computer text to interactive multimedia simulation, counselor educators
and supervisors have made numerous attempts to integrate new technologies into
counselor training (Casey, Bloom, & Moan,
1994). [http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed372357.html]
Historical Developments
Audiotape,
first through reel-to-reel and later through eight-track and cassettes, was
adopted during the 1950s and 60s to teach skills. Counseling students
used this medium to learn from “the masters” in pre-recorded sessions.
Students also created their own audiotapes of counseling sessions in order to
demonstrate their competence and obtain feedback regarding their performance.
Videotape later
became the dominant tool in demonstrating counseling skills and measuring
student progress. From the 1970s through the 1990s, widespread use of
videotape led to more sophisticated tools. Simultaneous split-screen
videotaping of client and counselor allowed more accurate capturing of
nonverbal cues. Remote viewing of a demonstration session using one or more
monitors allowed the session to take place with more privacy, eliminating the
obvious presence of student spectators. Stereo audio channels in videotape
allowed dual use of those channels, with the counseling session recorded on
one track and supervisor comments on a second track. Similarly, text based
comments by a supervisor can now be superimposed on the bottom of the
videotaped counseling session with appropriate hardware.
While these
technological tools increased counselor training effectiveness, they lacked a
two-way, interactive simulation process. The development of the microcomputer,
however, opened the interactive door.
Challenges to Interactive
Simulation Development
Flake (1975)
viewed interactive computer simulations as a way of exposing users to
real-life situations, permitting them to practice various response patterns or
skills with feedback being received as to their effect. The immediacy of
interactive simulations allowed for instantaneous feedback and the possibility
of an ongoing review of the two way communication process.
Computer
simulations were used by astronauts as they trained for space missions using
computerized, interactive simulators. Pilots, too, trained for military and
commercial flights using computerized, interactive simulators. Microsoft
Flight Simulator became a best selling software package in the 1980s and
stayed on the top 10 list for a number of years. So why not use “crash,
burn, and learn without hurting the real person” techniques for training
counselors?
Counselor
training has lagged other disciplines in interactive simulation development
for five primary reasons:
First, counselor training is a
vertical market, i.e. the number of users is quite limited when compared to
the general population, so the financial rewards are minimal. Creating
products that crossover into related disciplines, such as social work,
psychology, and sociology, can help the author recoup more adequate
compensation through expanded markets.
Second, a truly accurate simulation of counseling reality becomes
complicated quickly, so the complexity of designing programming loops can
involve an exponentially expanding series of choices and responses. While
expanded storage memory from (floppy disks to CD-ROM’s to ZIP drives) has
allowed progress in this area, the challenge to the programmer can be
daunting.
Third, the simulation of human
behavior, as in most social sciences, does not lend itself to discrete
categories, as it may in the physical sciences; values, attitudes, beliefs,
spirituality, nonverbal cues, intuition, and other factors defy
codification. Thus, authors often limit their simulations to teach only
constructs that reflect limited theoretical goals.
Fourth, some in the human
service field view technology and counseling with a dualistic orientation
and are subsequently resistant to their merger. They view technology as an
intrusion, not a compliment, to working with people. Converts seem to be
growing, however, as more of the population moves developmentally through
the five stages of the diffusion of innovation curve (Casey,
1995).
Fifth, the hardware industry
never stands still. Thus, there is rampant incompatibility of hardware with
software, especially with ever evolving upgrades. New, faster, more complex
hardware systems allow new options to emerge but make previous versions
unreadable and obsolete. And the economic realities of the industry are
predicated on planned obsolescence.
Early Pioneers
Despite the
five challenges listed, a number of counseling futurists have pioneered
efforts to develop interactive computer simulations for counselor training.
Bluhm (1988) describes some of the earliest attempts, including CLIENT I,
MORTON, the CSU-Hayward project, Genesis II, The Great Therapist Program, and
a University of Iowa dissertation project.
CLIENT I,
developed in 1975, sought to simulate client behavior in an initial interview
(Lichtenberg, Hummel, & Shaffer,
1984). The expertise of counselor
trainees was determined by their rating on a good counselor index which
reflected how appropriate and accurate their responses were. The benefits, as
touted by its developers, were that it permitted counselor educators to
simulate a wide variety of client verbal behaviors and client concerns. CLIENT
I was originally written using FORTRAN IV for use on a mainframe computers.
MORTON dealt
with the treatment of mild to moderate depressive disorders, using a variety
of cognitive and behavioral therapeutic techniques. It represented another
attempt to integrate a decision making simulation model through computer
enhancement (Selmi et al, 1982).
The CSU,
Hayward, project involved both computer and video interactive training modules
with counselor education students (Pressley & Parker,
1984). Each module,
15-20 minutes in length, included a demonstration and modeling of a skill
(e.g., paraphrasing, attending, confrontation); questions asking students to
analyze a demonstration related to the skill; branching to corrective feedback
and review in response to wrong answers; positive feedback for correct
answers; and branching to review or summaries as requested by students.
Genesis II,
developed by Chubon (1986) for use by rehabilitation counseling students,
introduced students to an array of disabilities potential clients may report.
Once a disability type is selected, the computer created a profile of the
individual. Students were then required to engage in such management
activities as intake interview, consultation, referral, and vocational
assessment. For each of these management activities, the student had to
determine whether psychological, social, medical, vocational, and personal
information should be requested, with inappropriate choices noted by error
messages and totally inappropriate selections causing the program to
“crash.”
The Great
Therapist Program (Halpin, Dixon, & Glover,
1987) was developed to allow
pre-service counselors to simulate dialogue with clients using the models of
Carol Rogers, Frederick Perls, Alan Goldstein, and Albert Ellis. Students were
presented with clients and given feedback as to how their responses compared
with those of the classic therapists.
In an doctoral
dissertation at the University of Iowa, Kenney (1991) created on videodisc
interactive loops for teaching counseling skills. As with other programs, she
incorporated client simulations with presenting issues and offered alternative
responses to the student user.
Interactive Simulation for
Teachers
While the
aforementioned programs approached interactive simulation, limitations in both
speed and multi-sensory involvement kept them from approaching a true virtual
reality simulation environment. In the 1990s, increased microprocessor
speed and increased memory storage have led to greater movement in that
direction.
Desberg,
Colbert, and Trimble (1995) developed a low-cost, commercial product on CD-ROM
for Macintosh that was built upon hypertext and compressed video, concurrently viewed on the
monitor screen. These simulations, intended for the teacher education market,
were designed to teach classroom management and discipline. The package
includes 6 different modules, each with a 1-3 minute "QuickTime"
movie capturing critical classroom incidents. It uses case methodology,
including the review of critical classroom events, student analysis of those
events, and expert and novice commentary which span a variety of theoretical
positions. The user may select one of a group of paths and activities at any
point in time. There are four main interactive elements, two of which give
direct feedback and two which are student generated. It encourages student
reflection by asking the student questions permitting them to respond, and
providing subsequent feedback on their responses.
While the Desberg, et.
al., product was developed primarily for teachers, it can also be
used to train school counseling students in classroom management skills,
conducting classroom guidance, and consulting with teachers regarding
discipline strategies.
Interactive Simulation for
Counselors
For the counselor world, a recent
and promising example of an affordable commercial product built upon hypertext
and compressed video has been developed by Haney and Leibsohn
(1999), Basic
Counseling Responses: A Multimedia Learning System for the Helping
Professional (see http://counseling.wadsworth.com/basic/index.html). The package was designed to teach beginning students in
counselor education a basic model for helping skills using a workbook and a
CD-ROM, readable by either a Macintosh Power PC or a Windows 95 PC/Intel 486
system.
Basic Counseling Responses (BCR) contains compressed videos of seven client
sessions representing a wide range of client demographics, presenting
problems, and stages of counselor/client relationship. (The video is also
available on a more traditional videocassette for VHS playback but using this
format degrades the interactive capability.) A theoretical model is presented
with 15 basic counseling responses: opening or closing, attending,
empathizing, paraphrasing, giving feedback, questioning, clarifying,
directing, playing a hunch, noting a theme, noting a discrepancy, noting a
connection, reframing, allowing, and self-disclosing. Associated with each
response are three therapeutic intents (to acknowledge, to explore, or to
challenge) and five focuses (client experience, client feeling, client
thought, client behavior, plus immediacy).
After booting the CD-ROM and hearing an introduction about the use of the
program, an option is provided to select one of the seven sessions (video and
audio) to view in its entirety. After viewing a session, the student can then
choose to view the same session segment by segment, with each segment
representing a client statement and a counselor response. Following each
segment, the student is prompted to identify the type of response, the intent,
and/or the focus of the interaction. The user is given immediate feedback as
to the accuracy of their identification.
In addition to identifying predetermined responses, intents, and focuses, the
student is then invited to reflect upon many of the exercise questions with
open-ended comments, which can be saved on the computer via disk and
subsequently turned in to the instructor. The process is self-paced with ample
opportunity for help, filing to disk, or returning to a previous point in the
program. There is a helpful reminder to save work in progress before exiting
each portion of the program.
The author of this article utilized BCR for the first time in a beginning
course, Introduction to Counseling and Guidance, during summer session 1999.
The enrolled students represented three groups: admitted masters degree
students in Counseling, potential masters degree in Counseling, and students
in other Education programs choosing the course as an elective. In the class,
BCR was offered as a supplementary text for the class but usage of the CD-ROM
was demonstrated on a projection system within the classroom.
The reaction expressed by the class members to the BCR program was the most
enthusiastic response the author has observed in his twelve years of counselor
education and supervision career. The students insisted that the BCR be used
for three class periods, well belong the introductory period originally
scheduled by the author. The consensus of the class was that the product not
only reflected realistic counseling sessions but that the act of identifying
responses, intents, and focuses forced them to scrutinize each portion of the
session much more carefully. Moreover, the exercises evoked provocative
discussion regarding the counselor/client interaction. The students also noted
that the inclusion of video and audio allowed for voice inflection, nonverbal
behavior, gender, culture, age, and other variables to be included in the
discussion of appropriate counselor response. The reaction by the students who
were non-counselors was most emphatic: as this was likely their only course in
counseling, they valued the program as one-stop resource for skills that they
might integrate into their future roles as teachers, administrators, nurses,
or speech therapists. One international student in the class, from Japan, also
commented on how clearly the concepts and their applications to real
counseling situations were illustrated. At the conclusion of the course, there
was unanimous agreement that the CD-ROM and workbook package should be a
required text for future sections of the class.
The authors of BCR do offer several limitations to the program. They
acknowledge that counseling can be an art, characteristically ambiguous, and
thus the responses provided are worthy of discussion and debate among student
class members rather than viewed as "right" and "wrong" in a rigid sense.
They also acknowledge that the sessions are not to be viewed as "perfect
demonstrations of skills" but rather a starting point for critique. The
intent of the package is to be used interactively with a group and not simply
as a stand-alone package.
BCR, in summary, offers, in this author¹s opinion, the most sophisticated
attempt yet to create computer-assisted, interactive simulation experiences
using realistic counseling sessions. Use of compressed video and audio,
text-based tutorial and self-paced activities seem highly motivational for
teaching basic counselor helping skills. While there remains a need to
quantitatively assess the program¹s efficacy in actual skill acquisition, the
early results seem promising.
Future Directions
While each
generation of computer simulation for counselor training seems to dramatically
improve upon its predecessor, true virtual reality for counselor training
appears to still be “just around the corner.” The time, effort, and
resources necessary for this to occur appear to be formidable obstacles.
Counselor educators can encourage these efforts by adopting currently
developed innovative materials for integration into their curriculum wherever
appropriate.
Future computer
simulation could expand beyond generic skills to more specific applications of
counseling. Simulations specific to gerontological counseling, career
counseling, school guidance, rehabilitation counseling, mental health
counseling, college counseling, or agency counseling, to name just a few, may
not be far off.
Ongoing
updates to software development, including Internet-based enrichment materials
and even user discussion groups, are likely to be offered.
The goal of
training counselors to “crash, burn, and learn” using simulators is still
an admirable one. Perhaps it will take a larger team of innovative people,
coupled with commensurate rewards, to reach virtual reality status. As more
sophisticated technology is developed toward artificial intelligence, there
may be some spin-offs useful for counselor training as well.
Summary
The use of
technological tools to assist in the teaching of counseling skills continues
to evolve. Pioneering attempts during the 1970s and 1980s to create
simulation experiences were developed for platforms that are now virtually
extinct. More recently, programs such as Basic Counseling Responses,
illustrate promising attempts to utilize faster microprocessors and increased
storage with early signs of cautious optimism as we continue to move toward
more realistic virtual reality in counselor training.
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