East Tennessee State University Advances Counselor Education Program with EMS

June 28, 2012 - PRLog -- East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Counseling Program in the Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education offers a Master of Arts program with four main areas of study: Community Agency, Higher Education, Marriage and Family Counseling, and School Counseling. Each concentration will be enhanced with the recent implementation of Education Management Solutions’ (EMS) Total Counseling application, which allows the program to record video and track students’ progress.

EMS’ Total Counseling provides video recordings of counseling and role-playing sessions and data management, enabling counseling programs to document and track student learning outcomes. This helps demonstrate specific counseling concepts, models counselor behaviors for future practice, and enhances the learning process of counselors-in-training. Total Counseling is the only integrated hybrid counselor training solution that provides a digital recording system to capture on-campus counseling sessions; the ability to upload recorded audio/video interviews; manage electronic forms, participants, and interview rooms; generate evaluation checklists to measure competency; and store data in a secure hosted environment.

Total Counseling makes it simple for educators to audit students’ progress, which helps determine if they will be able to transfer the skills they acquired during role-play to their work with actual clients.

The clinic at ETSU occupies approximately 1,440 square feet, and consists of a waiting room, a family counseling room, a play therapy/family room, three individual/couple rooms, and a conference/observation/records room. In the late 1990s, the clinic took its current form with the addition of two rooms, an upgrade of microphones within rooms, and the addition of television monitors and switches to allow for improved session monitoring.

Meeting Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards was important to East Tennessee State University. Counseling Program Coordinator Janna L. Scarborough, Ph.D. says the program has the following goals: track student progress through key assessment of student learning outcomes linked to CACREP standards; on-site digital audio/recording capability to capture counseling and supervision sessions with state-of-the-art hardware and software; the ability to record sessions from various locations, allowing for simultaneous review between supervisor and student; and electronic management for clinic scheduling as well as student and client data management.

“We believe attainment of these goals will assist us in maintaining our high standards in providing a quality educational experience for our graduate students, as well as the clients we serve,” says Scarborough.

ETSU at first attempted to find software and hardware that would help the university achieve each goal individually. “What we found, however,” says Scarborough, “[was that] Education Management Solutions’ Total Counseling was one integrated system that would enable us to achieve all of our goals.”

ETSU will utilize the EMS solution to help improve degree candidates’ self-critique abilities, counseling skills, and knowledge. Faculty will also analyze attainment of student learning objectives by student, course, and concentration, provide timely feedback to candidates, and analyze sessions and information from clients to improve the quality of care.

Scarborough concludes, “We are excited to work with the team at EMS, and look forward to being equipped to meet the opportunities of the future and maintain our high standards of excellence!”



About Education Management Solutions, Inc. (EMS) http://www.EMS-works.com
Medical, nursing, and allied health schools, counseling programs, and hospitals use EMS’ suite of products to more efficiently manage clinical simulation centers, effectively evaluate learner performance, and digitally document simulated events. As the leader in simulation management technology since its founding in 1994, EMS offers complete turnkey solutions that include integrated software and hardware, design and planning, engineering, configuration, installation, training and support.
Education Management Solutions, Inc.
Contact: Dushy Edrisinghe
610-701-7002 x 218
Dushy.Edrisinghe@EMS-works.com