Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

There is an increased demand for online learning; however, this often matched with scepticism about whether online courses can prepare students adequately for the real world. The need for work readiness and developing transferable and professional skills, such as creativity and critical thinking, are all the more important in the digital world. The current research has evaluated the effectiveness of a careers unit in the Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA), a fully online fourth-year psychology course in Australia. A pre- and postevaluation of the careers unit was conducted, exploring career certainty and career self-efficacy as moderators for the effects of the unit on students’ work readiness. To further evaluate the effectiveness of the careers unit, the work readiness of students enrolled in another online unit, which does not aim to teach careers in psychology, was also measured. All participants completed career certainty and career self-efficacy scales, as well as a pre-unit quiz about their knowledge of careers in the industry of psychology at the start of the teaching period. At the end of the teaching period, all participants completed the work readiness scale and a post-unit quiz, whilst the students of the careers unit also completed a unit evaluation. The results of this study will be presented, anticipating that students who complete the careers unit have significantly greater work readiness, particularly, if they experience greater career certainty and career self-efficacy. The study enhances knowledge of work readiness, and informs the effective delivery of careers material in the online mode.