Bringing Service Learning Online

Service-learning is a pedagogical strategy that includes community engagement in learners’ curricula. Learners develop their social and civic competencies, as well as their personal and academic skills, and contribute to society! 

Service-learning aims to help learners become “whole humans” and responsible citizens. 

PLACE MODEL of Service Learning – Online! 

Service learning is composed of multiple stages. We will introduce you to a PLACE (Preparation, Link, Action, Celebrate, Effect) model and give you some suggestions for online use! 

1. Preparation 

First, you have to plan the service-learning experience. We suggest combining synchronous and asynchronous education. Prepare some materials about service-learning basics in advance and make them accessible to your students on Padlet, Moodle, Thinkfic, or similar platforms. You can check your learners’ understanding with a quick quiz or Google Form at the end!

Then, plan for live sessions via Zoom, Meet, or another conferencing tool to meet with your learners and assess their community needs. Remember, you can also include Internet and online communities. Use MURAL, Jamboard or similar mapping tools so your learners can put all the information in one place and make links between the gathered information. After the brainstorming session, learners should choose one topic or problem they want to work on. 

2. Link 

In the next step, your learners should connect to an organisation or institution they will collaborate on solving a chosen problem. You can help your learners search and introduce them to reliable searching platforms like Google, Duck Duck Go, etc. 

You can organise the meeting between the learners and organisation representatives so they can work together on a chosen problem. Again, it is essential to remember that the organisation’s needs can differ from your learning goals, so take care to find a compromise. 

After learners agree with the representatives, you can plan the best part – carrying out the activities!

3. Action 

Do a quick risk assessment and decide how you will track learners’ progress and measure their impact. We suggest using tools like Slack or Asana for assigning tasks. They also offer a quick overview of everyone’s progress! For a more immersive experience, look into the learning platforms mentioned above, as well as Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, with inbuilt conferencing options! 

It is advisable to set clear deadlines. Also, give learners options for live talks with you or each other by organising periodic, quick meetings. Look into Scrum for more ideas. 

4. Celebrate

After completing all the tasks, it is time to demonstrate what the learners have done and what they have learned. They can make infographics with Canva or do short videos with DaVinci Resolve.

Gather together on a conference call, share, and give learners a chance to present their work! Stream the meeting live on social media to share your joy with the world! 

5. Effect

When learners complete their ideas, they should see the impact on the community. We suggest meeting with the organisation’s representatives again. Also, you can measure the effect on the skills and knowledge of the students by evaluating Google Forms or more fun activities like the Kahoot quiz. Give your learners a chance to reflect on some of the ideas from our exercises for online classes! 

PLACE model has been developed in Erasmus+ funded project Service-Learning Upscaling Social Inclusion for Kids. Check it out here. 

Author: M.C.

RESOURCES 

Ćulum Ilić, B., Brozmanova Gregorova, A., Rusu, A.S. (2021). Service-Learning as a Novelty Experience at Central and Eastern European Universities: Students’ Narratives of Satisfaction and Premises of Change. Frontiers in Education (6),  https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.606356

Ledić, J. & Ćulum, B. (2010). Service-Learning – The Integration of Higher Education and the Community in the Process of the Education of Socially Responsible and Active Citizens. Rev. Soc. Polit., (1), 71-88.

Sigmon, R. L. (1990). Service-learning: Three principles. In J. C. Kendall (Ed.), Combining service and learning: A resources book for community and public service (Vol. 1) (pp. 37-56). Raleigh: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education.

Service-learning upscaling social inclusion for kids Toolkit (in preparation), available at: https://www.slusik.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Sulsik_eng_final-.pdf