TPC-Journal-V2-Issue2

The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 2 148 to gain practical experience applying the skills and concepts they are learning in their courses. As a result, they may feel confident in their abilities despite the fact they lack the actual hands-on training and experiences needed to appropriately validate their perceptions. Another explanation could be that online instructional methods might require students to employ learning strategies that are more conducive to improving self-efficacy. Previous research suggests that both the structure and content of online courses often make them conducive to self-paced learning (Appleton & Orr, 2000; Vrasidas & McIsaac, 2000), allowing students to work at a pace that provides them with the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the course content (Biggs, 1999). In addition, the increased autonomy inherent in the online environment has been found to positively relate to a higher sense of intrinsic motivation in many students (Wadsworth, Husman, Duggan, & Pennington, 2007). In other words, those students who enroll in online courses may be more invested in the learning process and thus more likely to put forth the additional effort required to be successful. In so doing, they might experience a greater sense of confidence in their ability to effectively counsel clients in the future. In terms of the multiple regression analysis performed, it was found that both age and degree level were significant predictors of students’ counseling self-efficacy beliefs. Specifically, older students and those who were working on an advanced degree (specialist or doctorate level) appeared to be more confident in their counseling abilities. A possible explanation could be that these students have a greater pool of experiences, both personal and professional, to draw upon when working with clients. Melchert, Hays, Wiljanen, and Kolocek (1996) found that both level of training and clinical experience positively contributed to students reporting significantly higher self-efficacy beliefs for counseling skills. It could be that more advanced students feel increasingly comfortable dealing with a wider variety of issues and client populations than their less experienced colleagues. The fact that gender was not a significant predictor appears to support previous research on gender differences in self-efficacy. As noted by Lepkowski et al. (2009), initial gender differences found early in the training process appear to dissolve as additional experience is gained. Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research Limitations and caveats need to be noted. First, although a significant effect for method of instruction was found, the small effect size computed could potentially mitigate the relative importance of this finding. Second, differences in teaching style of the various instructors of the students surveyed may serve as a confounding variable affecting the interpretation of these results. It could be that any differences noted in students’ self-efficacy beliefs could be related more to the efforts of the instructor than the instructional platform used to deliver the course material. In this study, faculty status (full-time or part-time/adjunct) was not addressed. For many online programs adjunct faculty are employed. While many are practicing counselors and may possess more current clinical experience than their full-time educator peers, their investment in the total development of their students may be less than that of full-time faculty members who spend significantly more time training and developing students to become counseling professionals. Additionally, while some instructors may be implementing online components to their courses for the first time, others may be more experienced and thus using more advanced technologies that allow them to better simulate actual counseling experiences for students and create a more interactive and dynamic learning environment. Finally, sampling issues need to be addressed. In the current study participants were recruited from a mailing list of current graduate students provided by the American Counseling Association. When they sign up for membership, individuals have the opportunity to make their contact information available or not. Since the participants in this study were limited to students who chose to make their contact information available, complete random sampling was not possible, thus limiting the generalizability of the results. Recommendations for Research and Practice The results of this study suggest that students enrolled in online core counseling skills courses report higher perceptions of counseling self-efficacy than those taking traditional FTF courses. While, depending on perspective, this result is encouraging for proponents of online education, it suggests that further research is warranted. In particular, future researchers seeking to expand on this initial exploration should consider examining the influence of specific course content as well. In this study, students were separated into groups based on whether or not they enrolled in online core graduate counseling skills courses. There was no control for the content of these courses or the types of learning experiences they