ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how a group of social work educators in the Department of Applied Social Sciences (APSS) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University responded to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2019. Departmental support to staff in terms of policies and resources are found to be important. Examples of how social work was taught virtually are used to illustrate how instructors worked with the students to ride the juggernaut together and supported students emotionally and academically. The story of APSS proves that utilizing new technologies and web-based platforms, such as Padlet, and implementing e-learning in social work education offer viable alternatives to traditional classroom teaching and assessment of learning outcomes, especially in areas related to peer-learning, transparency in teacher–student sharing, and learning analytics. In addition, social education should embed practice-based elements and be directed at serving communities. In so doing, the co-creation and co-production of educational content with students, graduates, and local professionals creates an effective model for social work education. This chapter offers a next-stage vision of how to “work for the new normal” and draws attention to the APSS's introduction of immersive technologies, virtual reality, and augmented reality to enhance the dynamic content of social work pedagogy.
