Field Education for Online MSW

The LSU School of Social Work MSW program highlights the centrality of field internships to the School's mission and its relevance to coursework. To be effective helping professionals, students must spend time observing and analyzing client and professional interactions in agency settings. 

 Field education is the signature pedagogy for social work. Signature pedagogies are elements of instruction and socialization that teach future practitioners the fundamental dimensions of professional work in their discipline: to think, to perform, and to act intentionally, ethically, and with integrity. The field setting is where students apply human rights principles from global and national social work ethical codes.

Field education is designed to integrate the theoretical and conceptual contributions of the explicit curriculum in the field setting. It is a fundamental precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum—classroom and field—are of equal importance, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice. Field education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated according to criteria and measures for student acquisition and demonstration of the nine social work competencies.

 Responding to the changing nature of the practice world and student demographics and characteristics, field education programs articulate how they maintain or enhance students' access to high-quality field practicum experiences. Field education programs develop field models to prepare students for contemporary, interprofessional social work practice, including the use of various technologies. - CSWE EPAS 2022

Although all "classroom" content courses are available online, the field education course will need to be incorporated into the equivalent of two days a week during a typical work week (16-18 hours a week) or a block format (12 weeks, 40 hours a week). The experiential requirements of MSW programs do not include field courses offered online. Students are required to complete their field internship hours during regular business hours and days of the week. It must be completed in an agency setting during regular business hours to provide an opportunity to develop competencies in areas prescribed by the Council on Social Work Education educational standards. This makes it very unique and often challenging for online students, and this information is provided during admissions to assist in planning and ensure the field experience is a successful part of your educational experience.

The program is open to all US residents living in the United States. No international students can be accepted. International placements are not permitted unless approved on US military bases.

Single Format 

• 2 days per week (16-18 hours)  
• 4 modules

Block Format 

• 40 hours per week (40 hours for 12 weeks)
• 2 modules

Students complete twelve semester hours of field education courses, working a total of 900 clock hours of training in the field (a minimum of 900 hours must be agency clock hours). The field education program at LSU is divided into two equally important parts: Students complete internship hours during the traditional workday, defined as the regular hours services are provided to clients and supervision is available; evening, night, and weekend hours are the exception. No internship can be completed entirely during evening or weekend hours because students must participate in staff meetings and other normal agency activities that occur during the day. The field courses in each year of the program (Generalist SW7007/7008, then Specialized SW7502/7503) must be taken consecutively to maximize learning. The Director of Field must approve exceptions.

Generalist Internship

• SW7007  Foundation I Internship
• SW7008  Foundation II Internship

Specialized Internship

• SW7502  Advanced I Internship
• SW7503  Advanced II Internship