Teaching Your Service Learning Course Online 

We know that high-impact practices support profound learning by promoting student engagement and real-world experience.  Among those high-impact practices, service learning courses help students achieve a deeper understanding of course content. They can also shape their personal values and civic responsibility through reflection and participation in an organized service activity that serves community needs  (Bringle, Hatcher, McIntosh, 2006).    

For these compelling reasons, many faculty members, divisions, and entire institutions had plans to offer robust service learning courses only to be disrupted by the global pandemic. However, it is still possible to teach service learning courses that are just as impactful in the online environment.    

Join us for this webcast, where our expert speaker—who has over a decade of experience teaching service learning courses online—will share example-based best practices to help you keep students engaged, serve community partners, and ultimately create dynamic learning experiences. 

Who Should Attend

If you teach service learning courses or support service-learning efforts at your institution and want to learn how to effectively deliver a service learning course in the online environment, this program is for you. Faculty, Directors of Experiential & Service Learning, and academic leaders seeking ways to increase student engagement will benefit as well. 

Agenda

During this program, our speaker will focus on the following three strategies for success:

Part 1: Prepare  Students, Faculty, and Community Partners  for  Success in a Virtual Environment

• Identify campus resources to support your online teaching strategy
• Create flexible and frequent connection points with students
• Establish strategies to engage community partners and meet their needs virtually

Part 2: Structure Your Course and Assignment Design to Promote Engaged Learning

Encourage and develop practical thinking and problem-solving skills in alignment with service-learning standards to:

• Promote diversity
• Provide meaningful service
• Create clear connections to the curriculum
• Build reciprocal partnerships
• Center youth voice
• Actively monitor progress
• Facilitate reflection

Part 3: Assess Student Learning 

• Transparently establish learning goals
• Design measures such as rubrics to help students understand and attain learning outcomes