Online career counselling: Developing
a pedagogy for e-career learning
Jiva Conference – Bangalore, India
Tannis Goddard
President
Training Innovations Inc.
tannis.goddard@training-innovations.com
Objectives
 Identify the distinction between online
resources and service
 Consider how e-learning constructivist
pedagogy can guide the design and
development of online counselling services
 Explore the impact of locating narratives in
an online space related to the roles of
“giving” and “getting” online
 Identify changing roles for practitioners in
an online service model
Who Gives & Who Gets…Online
Resource
Services
 Understanding an individuals’
resource needs
 Providing resource
recommendations
 Orienting individuals to the
materials
 Following up to verify the value
of the resources
 Practitioning exchange – a
purposeful focused
intervention to enhance an
individual’s career
development skills – building
from a constructivist, meaning
making perspective
Vuorinen & Sampson 2009
 Relocating the use of ICT from
a geographical solution to a
solution of learning and
engagement
Career Learning
Career development learning in its broadest form
relates to learning about the content and process
of career development or life/career
management. The content of career
development learning in essence represents
learning about self and learning about the world
of work. Process learning represents the
development of the skills necessary to navigate a
successful and satisfying life/career .
McMahon, Patton & Tatham, 2003, p.6
Career Learning
Career-learning thinking is an account of how
people learnt to manage working life.
It speaks for what they find, what they think-andfeel about that, the sense they make of it and the
bases they find for acting on it.
Law, 2010, p.2
Online Career Counselling
Learning & counselling that
takes place using an electronic
web-space, where the helping
relationship occurs through
the use of synchronous and
a-synchronous communication
methods.
Individuals have control in
accessing and completing their
development process while also
engaging in an interactive process
with their career facilitator to
create meaning and understanding.
Online Career Counselling
A Collaborative + Self Directed Process
Building an e-pedagogy for career learning
Information :: Explore
relevant career concepts
Personal Application ::
Engage in activities to apply
concepts to self
Interaction ::
Communicate with
e-counsellor and, potentially,
other online participants to
collaboratively explore
meaning
Features
INFORMATION
Content Slides,
PDFs, Graphics
Resource links to
external websites
Document Storage
Audio or Video Files
PERSONAL APPLICATION
Reflection Exchanges
Dynamic Activities
INTERACTION
Private Messaging
(My Comm)
Live Chat
Standardized and
Informal Assessments
Counselling
Exchanges
Group Discussion
Group Discussion
Journaling
Scoping Program Models
Self-Directed
Light Facilitation
In-depth facilitation
Client can self-select content
and activities to complete.
Pre-assessment can determine
the most applicable content
and activities for the client.
Practitioner can assess
content and activity needs
throughout client
participation.
Themed Bite-Sized
Content
Content and activities are
organized and made available
by theme or objective.
Dialogue between practitioner
and client is most likely to
occur before or after client
engages with content and
activities.
Practitioner can serve as a
thread to support the
meaning making of a series of
bite-sized modules.
Comprehensive
Content
Content and activities can aim
to serve as a source of
facilitation through the career
learning process.
Practitioner can support
meaning making as client
navigates through content and
activities.
Dialogue with practitioner
and/or other clients is a key
component in a client’s
experience.
Personalized
Content
All possibilities can:
 be blended with F2F or V2V (phone) learning experiences
 include client-to-client interaction
 support long term or short term access
Locating the narrative online
 Space for client’s narrative to live in his/her
language intermixed with practitioner
dialogue
 Transparent and recursive process
 “draws on imagination and creativity to
enable people to become much more
knowledgeable about themselves and to
increase their sense of agency” (Wright, 2002)
Practitioner Impact
 Expanding role - including design of interventions
 Adopting a constructivist philosophy – shifting
role from expert to facilitator of meaning-making
 Reconceiving how to build rapport and establish
on-going relationships with clients
 Developing strong reading-for-meaning skills and
empathetic writing skills
 Maintaining strong technical skills