Transforming a Traditional School Counseling Graduate Program to Distance Learning: The Student Experience

This study used a qualitative descriptive approach to explore student experiences in the process of converting a traditional classroom graduate program to an online distance learning program. The study participants are graduate students enrolled in a school counseling program that is transitioning from the traditional face to face setting to online distance learning. Open-ended questions were administered using the discussion section of Blackboard to students enrolled in an online school counseling course. Inductive content analysis was used until all data had been systematically coded, analyzed, and data saturation achieved. This process was followed by the development of patterns and themes. Findings: Analysis of the qualitative data resulted in a description of the students’ view and learning experiences in online course delivery including the strengths and weaknesses.Conclusions: Overall, the strengths of online delivery outweigh the weaknesses. There is a need for improvement in technology systems, and the personal interaction in online learning.Clinical Relevance: This study is relevant because there is not enough research exploring the learning experiences of graduate students in an online school counseling program.