Using interactive videodisc technology for counselor training

The present study was carried out to examine how standardized interactive videodisc practice would affect the learning of basic counseling skills of beginning graduate counseling students. Materials included an optical videodisc illustrating three counseling interviews and two computer programs designed by the researcher for counselor trainee practice.

Subjects for this experimental study were 39 student volunteers from two graduate introductory counseling classes. All subjects participated in a pre experimental counseling interview and a post experimental counseling interview. Students were subject to three types of treatment: (1) practice utilizing both the discrimination and communication programs, (2) practice utilizing the discrimination program, and (3) practice using only the communication program. The three fall experimental groups were compared to a spring comparison study group taught by traditional counseling methods without practice utilizing interactive videodisc technology.

Groups by repeated testings analyses of variance were used to determine whether there were differences between the various treatment groups and within each group. Although there was no evidence of significant differences among the three experimental groups using this medium, there was an overall increase in counselor effectiveness from the baseline interview to the criterion interview videotaped at the conclusion of the experimental study.