Abstract
Divorce education programs first surfaced over four decades ago. Today, many states mandate parents to participate in a divorce education program before their dissolution can be finalized. Changes in the technological landscape have allowed innovative practitioners to create online divorce education programs, yet these programs have not been formally evaluated for quality. Adapting a research design for evaluating face-to-face programs, we created an online divorce education review form and reviewed online divorce education programs that parents use to meet court-mandated requirements. Results reveal that online programs have significant potential to help divorcing parents, yet there are areas of online program content and instructional strategies that can be improved. Program content that includes legal and court focused topics or modules, or that offer advice for families facing special circumstances such as domestic violence, could be enhanced. Additionally, most of the instructional strategies were passive. With this research, recommendations were made for improving program content and instructional strategies for online divorce education programs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 776-787 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Family Court Review |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2011 |
Keywords
- divorce
- divorce education
- evaluation
- online program
- technology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Law