Author Archives: profmattdecarlo

The debate over social work examinations created by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) has been hampered by the lack of openly available methodology and data checked by neutral third parties. As a result, test-takers, researchers, employers, and social work boards are left with little information on which to gauge the quality of socialContinue reading “ASWB hides data from State Social Work Boards that could license thousands of excluded social workers”

Recently, the Association of Social Work Boards posted an article of misinformation about differential item functioning (whether an item on a test is biased) as compared to differential test functioning (whether the entire test is biased). I’m going to go over what is inaccurate about their blog post and why those misrepresentations matter. First, theContinue reading “ASWB lies about DIF & DTF”

Hi, everyone! Produced this for my fellow faculty, and I thought others might benefit from it. -Matt Why prioritize textbook costs? Textbooks are a social equity issue. Every student should have first-day access to all of the materials needed to succeed in the course. When my colleagues and I at Virginia schools of social workContinue reading “Prepping a Zero Textbook Cost Course”

Hey everyone! Starting a new thing here where I’m blogging instead of sending long emails that only one person reads. Hopefully more people find this useful. One of the goals of Payment for Placements organizers is removing the cost of field education software. While many schools use some combination of spreadsheets, forms, poorly-formatted Microsoft WordContinue reading “Student Data Privacy in Field Education”

This panel presentation is a re-recording of our presentation live at the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting in November of 2021. Panelists include Matt DeCarlo, Whitney Payne, Rebecca Mauldin, and Susan Tyler. Slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fCxPkBGHQvPBMCUXB2jGv0xMgPGilK2twSQd0cDSJsk/edit?usp=sharing Abstract Open textbooks are free, editable, and shareable alternatives to commercial textbooks. Our four panelists will detail theirContinue reading “Open textbooks: Educational equity and innovation”

Finding open opportunities in a closed curriculum: Strategies for junior and contingent faculty was a presentation delivered at the OpenEd21 conference by Matt DeCarlo on 10/21/21. Slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vl58Qx5qKhjmBBeFVKVjHPY8ieb0XiotbNJx_5OYZl0/edit?usp=sharing Abstract Because universities predominantly employ contingent faculty—adjunct, part-time, or student teachers—it is important for the open education community to explore how to experiment with open pedagogy whenContinue reading “Finding open opportunities in a closed curriculum: Strategies for junior and contingent faculty”

Social work knowledge is ruthlessly privatized. The overwhelming majority of educational resources created by faculty and disseminated to students reuses content that is commercially copyrighted. That is, the content is behind a paywall and the copyright holder does not allow for people to reuse the content in transformative ways. For example, slideshows or activities thatContinue reading “Open educational practices: Faculty self-defense in a privatized knowledge ecosystem”