Counselors Attitudes Toward Video Editing Technology

Scott Schaefle
Marlowe Smaby
Li Ping Liu
University of Nevada, Reno

Scott Schaefle is a PhD candidate at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Marlowe Smaby, PhD is the Chair of the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at UNR. Li Ping Liu, PhD is a professor of Information Technology at UNR. Contact Information: Schaefle@unr.nevada.edu

Counselor education has been and will continue to be effected by technology. Over the years, counselors and counselor educators have adopted new technologies, for example the use of audio and then video recording devices. For counselor educators, each new generation of technology offers new opportunities to integrate it into the supervision process (Casey & Bloom, 1994). Though new technologies have been adopted, there has often been resistance to doing so (Granello, 2000). Understanding the most effective ways to implement the use of new technologies into counselor education will require understanding the attitudes of counselor education students (Jencius & Paez, 2003). However, at the present time there is very little research available that addresses what technologies counseling programs are using, let alone what students’ attitudes toward them may be (Quinn, Hohensihl, & Fortune, 2002; Berry, Srebalus, Cromer, & Tackacs, 2003). In reviewing the literature for the current study, this lack of information became clear. The present study will attempt to better identify counseling students attitudes toward the use of computer based video editing technology.

As technology has become more omnipresent, programs have wrestled with the question of the most effective way to incorporate it into counselor education. In 1999, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) adopted a set of technical competencies for counselor education students, and in 2001 the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) introduced references to technology in their accreditation standards. These standards imply that competency with technology is desirable. The mention of technology by these organizations highlights its impact on the field of counselor education.

One of the most common types of technology used in counselor education programs is video recording and playback equipment. Quinn, Hohenshil, and Fortune (2002) surveyed counselor education programs accredited by CACREP and found that 93% of the programs used video technology. This was the highest usage rate of any of the categories of technology about which the survey inquired.

Berry, et al. (2003) found that generally counselors in training had basic skills with computer technology, and that there were very few studies concerning the technology skills of counselors in training. The authors point out that with the lack of research available; there is no way to say what skills would be most relevant or beneficial to developing counselors. No information on video editing experience was found in this or other articles. They suggest however, that there may be a gap between counselors’ computer competence and the requirements they will face in their jobs.

In a study of the impact of a technology training course on counseling students, Edwards, Portman, and Bethea (2002) suggest that computer competence increases with exposure via a required course. This suggests that it would be beneficial to include formal instruction in technology as part of a counseling program for whatever technologies are deemed appropriate by counselor educators.

Jencius and Paez (2003), suggest that counseling programs do not typically include technology training. The authors promote the idea of infusing technology training into counselor education programs to achieve the greatest educational impact.

With a great deal unknown about the level and type of technological competence that exists or would be desirable among counseling students, it seems logical to consider how best to include technology education in the curriculum. Woodrow (1991) points out that understanding student attitudes toward computer technology is a critical component to developing computer based curricula. Jencius and Paez (2003) agree with this assessment, and state that assessing the computer attitudes of students will be important as computers are increasingly implemented in the classroom and counseling profession. Negative computer attitudes can cause computer anxiety, which inhibits learning (Massoud, 1991). Woodrow (1991) suggests that actual experience working with computers can lead toward more positive attitudes toward them, whereas simple knowledge of their possible applications does not.

Jencius and Paez (2003) suggest that understanding attitudes is important because attitudinal barriers can hinder the adoption of new technology. Quinn et al. (2002) state “the encroachment of the silicon chips and technology into the field of counselor education is anathema to many counselor educators” (Quinn, et al., p. 1). Casey (1999) believes that many in human services view technology with skepticism, and do not see it as a way to enhance their work with people. The range of the albeit limited findings about counselors and technology seems to support Woodrow’s claim from 1991 that in order to maximize technology as a teaching and learning tool, attitudes toward computer technology must be constantly monitored.

The research discussed so far focuses on counseling students attitudes towards computer technology in general. One specific area where computer technology has advanced rapidly is video. In 1994, Casey and Bloom wrote that it was possible that “technology could allow for the creation of ‘electronic portfolios’ to demonstrate attainment of specific counseling skill competencies” (pg 3). Current technology makes that idea a very achievable reality. As mentioned before, approximately 93% of CACREP programs have and use video technology (Quinn, et al., 2002). Now computer editing software makes it possible to adapt video for educational purposes (Baltimore, 2003). Counselor education programs have long used video tapes of sessions for supervision purposes (Baltimore, 2003, Casey & Bloom, 1994). Casey and Bloom (1994) point out that supervisors have been able to add audio and some text to student video in supervision settings, and that the use of video recording allows for students to bring specific segments of their counseling sessions to their supervisors. Baltimore (2003) suggests that the next logical step is to adapt the use of video for new ways of teaching and training.

The purpose of the present study is to determine if training in computer based video editing technology effects counseling students’ attitudes towards technology.

The participants were 30 masters’ degree counseling students enrolled in a counseling practicum class during which they used video editing software. There were 8 males and 22 females ranging from 23 to 59 years of age (mean = 31.89, median = 29.5, mode = 23, two did not report). The reported ethnicities were as follows: 1 student was Korean, 25 students were white, non-Hispanic, 2 students were “other”, and 2 did not report ethnicity. All 30 students attended a medium size land grant university in the Western United States. The counseling department holds accreditation from the Counsel for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).

Two instruments were used in this study, the STCSL and the CAS. The STCSL was given at the end of the class. The instrument uses a 1-5 point Likert-like scale ranging from 1= Strongly Disagree, to 5= Strongly Agree. The CAS was used as a pretest and posttest measure. It was administered at the first and last meetings of the semester long class. It also uses a 1-5 Likert-like scale with the same values as the STCSL.

Reliability and coefficient alpha for the CAS was found to be 0.835 (Liu & Johnson, 1998). Information for the STCSL is not yet available.

All students were given the CAS at the first class meeting and demographic data was collected. During the course, they met with mock clients who were student volunteers from an undergraduate psychology class. During the semester, the students have traditionally been required to provide written transcriptions of four video taped counseling sessions. Students are required to hand in a written transcription (“transcribed manuscript”) along with a video tape that demonstrates their use of specific counseling skills.

For the purposes of this study, students were required to turn in tapes of two sessions with traditional transcribed manuscripts and tapes of two sessions that used edited video footage instead of written transcription for skill demonstration and appraisal.

The standard written transcription required students to note at what point in the tape they had demonstrated a specific skill, explain its use and rationale, provide a critique of the demonstration, and offer an alternative response that the student thought could have improved the execution. The instructor for the course would view the tape and read the transcribed manuscript and provide the student with written feedback on his/her manuscript.

For the edited video submissions, the students submitted a “dub-script” of their session that included the same basic elements. Students were required to select the portion of the tape that demonstrated a specific skill and create a video clip of it. They then provided verbal commentary addressing the rationale and use of the skill, a self critique of their performance, and an alternate response indicating how the student thought s/he could have improved, all on the tape. Rather then providing written feedback, the instructor provided videotaped feedback on a different tape, which the students then edited into their original tape so that the final tape contained a demonstration of the skill, explanation of its rationale, an alternate response, and instructor feedback for each skill.

Video editing was done using the iMovie program. Students were trained on the basics of the software early in the semester and then provided the opportunity to get technical support as needed throughout the semester.

To test the first hypothesis, the pre and post test scores on each of the 28 items of the CAS were compared using a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test. A separate test was performed on each of the 28 items of the CAS. Four items appeared to be significant, however, in order to control for alpha slippage, a Bonferroni correction was performed. Keeping the experiment wise alpha level at .05 would mean each individual test would need to be significant at the .0018 level. None of the results were significant at this level.

Effect sizes were calculated using Eta². Effect sizes for all 28 items ranged from 0 to .27. Three tests had no effect, 12 showed a small effect, 9 showed a medium effect, and 4 showed a large effect.

To test the second hypothesis, the scores on the STCSL were examined. Because the data was categorical, modes and frequencies were examined. The 28 items indicating interest in and comfort with the video editing technology, seemed to reflect positive attitudes. The two items (numbers 14 and 19) with the largest mode frequencies had a mode of 4, agree, and frequencies of 15 and 16 respectively. The items are “using a computer program such as iMovie helps to develop counseling skills” and “using iMovie and learning the dub script process are very interesting.” Items that indicated disagreement include item 1, “I don’t think using technology such as iMovie is very important to my learning” on which 12 participants responded 2, disagree, and item 18 “It’s easier to understand counseling skills with the traditional process of tape script,” on which 9 students responded , 1, strongly disagree. These responses seem to indicate that the students found the iMovie technology interesting to use, did not feel anxious about it, and preferred it to traditional transcription methods.

Based on the limited data available, it appears that after the training course, counseling students had generally positive attitudes towards the technology used. The lack of statistical significance makes it difficult to determine how much these attitudes changed after the course. Because of the small sample size, the presence of medium and large effect sizes may mean that larger samples would yield significant results.

Small sample size is one limitation of this study. The lack of reliability and validity data for the instruments is another. It is worth noting that because of the rapid pace of change in the field, establishing and maintaining validity may both be challenging.

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