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It’s difficult to practise being a social worker. You obviously can't have students practising with actual clients, so how can you train the next generation of social workers to support a diverse range of clients, many of whom are in difficult circumstances or have experienced trauma?

A new, leading-edge project, led by the University of Calgary's , is creating a safe space for students to learn crucial social work skills and be ready for practice. 

The Unfolding Case Studies video series, created through a , provides students with a series of short videos in which they “meet”  characters in a way that mirrors how they might be introduced to clients in real-world practice. 

The videos are a useful tool that help students transition from theory to practice, while shaping how students see themselves as social workers. The approach is also drawing interest from allied health faculties across campus and throughout Alberta, particularly through interprofessional communications-teaching initiatives.

The first video series was introduced last year and, when Drs. and discuss the project, their enthusiasm is unmistakable. For both educators, the project represents something rare in curriculum design: a learning tool that feels alive.

Gulbrandsen, the undergraduate program director for the Calgary BSW program, and Jenney, PhD, an associate professor and the Woods Homes Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health, recently helped launch the series of short, carefully crafted video scenarios that introduce students to a diverse cast of characters whose stories reveal themselves piece by piece. The idea grew out of the new BSW curriculum, which places a much greater emphasis on experiential, skills-based learning threaded directly throughout required courses.

“We were looking for ways to make learning active, engaging and grounded in the realities of practice,” says Gulbrandsen, BEd'96, BA'98, MEd'07, PhD'17. “Unfolding Case Studies offered a way for students to apply skills, test assumptions and learn in a safe environment before they meet real clients.”

Learning in layers

The project began with a grant application to the , followed by months of collaboration with faculty, a simulations co-ordinator, actors, practicum students, research assistants and community partners. 

The team initially explored virtual-gaming simulations, following Jenney’s successful, innovative series, but realized they didn’t need that level of complexity. Instead, they focused on something deceptively simple: real human stories presented in fragments.

Each case unfolds through multiple short video clips depicting the same character or family in different contexts; for example, a shelter intake, a food bank visit, a conversation with a nurse, or an assessment with a social worker. Students working in different classes or groups see different versions of the same person and must come together to assemble a shared understanding.

“For us, that was intentional,” says Jenney. “People don’t present the same way in every situation. If I’m hungry or frustrated or feel mistreated, I’m going to behave differently than I might on a calmer day. We wanted students to see that humanity. We also wanted them to reflect on how their own social location and biases shape how they interpret what they see.”

The design mirrors real-world interprofessional practice: Students hold pieces of a story, much like agencies across a community might. To support that, the cases are integrated into in-class activities, reflective assignments and small-group discussions that ask students to explore what they know, what they assume and what they might be overlooking. Students complete practical assignments associated with the cases that challenge them to apply their relationship building and assessment skills. 

A safe space to build skills

The Unfolding Case Studies series also addresses something the faculty has heard from students for years, that the transition to practicum can feel intimidating. 

“This gives them a chance to try skills out, make mistakes, reflect, and talk it through with peers before the stakes feel higher,” Gulbrandsen explains. “It’s a supportive way to build confidence.”

The realism of the scenarios is a major factor in their impact. The faculty used trained actors who incorporated elements of lived experience into their performances. Students consistently say the characters feel very real — sometimes uncomfortably so. 

Jenney says she still feels emotional every time she watches certain scenes. “That’s when learning sticks,” she says. “People remember the things that move them.”

Relevance beyond social work

Although the cases were designed for social work, their potential reaches further. Nursing colleagues have already expressed interest in using them for interprofessional education. For one of the case-studies involving older adults, for example, early consultations with ensured that the continuing-care case reflected realistic pressures, policies and gaps in the system. CareWest staff confirmed that the scenarios ring true.

“We wanted to show the clients as well as the systems as realistically as we could. This includes the ways our services can unintentionally cause harm,” Jenney says. “That’s critical learning for any helping profession.”

A shared experience that follows students

One unexpected benefit of the project is how it has created a shared learning touchpoint across the program. Six fall classes worked with the same character last year, giving students a common experience that they continued to talk about outside the classroom. In other courses, instructors say students reference the characters as though they’re people they’ve actually met.

“That’s when you know something has become part of their social work identity,” says Gulbrandsen. “It travels with them.”

The response was so positive that the team is already expanding the library of cases, an initiative that they hope will find future philanthropic and grant-funded support from partners who see the value in preparing future social workers with learning tools that are authentic, reflective and grounded in the complexities of real life.

“We want students to remember these stories years from now,” Jenney says. “We want them to say that unfolding case study changed the way I think about practice.”