Web-assisted vocational test interpretation

Abstract

Despite the increasing availability of online counseling services, many questions remain unanswered. This study compared the effectiveness of a specific employment counseling activity, vocational interest inventory interpretation, across 3 delivery modalities: (a) online text chat; (b) online text chat with video cues; and (c) traditional, face-to-face interpretation. The difference in ratings of session value between text chat with video and face-to-face modalities was not significant; both were rated significantly higher than text chat alone. The results provide tentative support for online delivery of vocational test interpretation if video cues are available but suggest caution with use of text chat alone.