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Compare, C.; Albanesi, C. Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/21229 (accessed on 21 December 2024).
Compare C, Albanesi C. Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/21229. Accessed December 21, 2024.
Compare, Christian, Cinzia Albanesi. "Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/21229 (accessed December 21, 2024).
Compare, C., & Albanesi, C. (2022, March 31). Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/21229
Compare, Christian and Cinzia Albanesi. "Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic." Encyclopedia. Web. 31 March, 2022.
Extreme Online Service-Learning during the Pandemic
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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/ijerph19052749

Service-Learning (SL) is an experience that allows students to (a) participate in activities co-designed in partnership by universities and local organizations and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain an enhanced sense of responsibility. These experiences represent significant ways to meet and experience real-world contexts for students. The COVID-19 pandemic required Higher Education Institutions to rethink and shift in-presence courses to online platforms. This transition included SL courses as well. 

extreme online service-learning democratic competencies sense of community responsibility COVID-19 Italian lockdown

1. Service-Learning

Service-Learning is an experiential approach aimed at developing personal, professional (subject-specific), and civic and democratic competencies of students. It integrates meaningful community service or engagement into the curriculum, offering students academic credit for the learning that derives from active participation within the community and work on a real-world problem. Based on developing a sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) [1], SL should support students’ capacity to act effectively and responsibly for the collective well-being. Reflection and experiential learning strategies underpin the learning process, and the service is linked to the academic discipline [2]. SL contributes to students’ “reality check” and competencies mobilization and development by offering the opportunity to articulate learning through reflections and engaging in real-world issues. Service-Learning benefits for students range from personal/transferable competencies (self-efficacy; adaptability) to democratic competencies (understanding of social issues) to disciplinary ones (academic performance) [3][4][5][6].
Nevertheless, defining transferable and democratic competencies is not an easy task. Transferable skills are also referred to as competence for life, key competence, and generic competence [7]. According to the Council of Europe [8], they identify knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by all for personal fulfillment and development, employability, social inclusion, and active citizenship. The Council of Europe has also defined democratic competence within the Reference Framework of Competencies for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) [9]. They identify a set of attitudes, values, skills, and knowledge that need to be acquired by learners to participate effectively in a culture of democracy and live peacefully together with others in culturally diverse democratic societies and to feel a sense of belonging and make their positive contributions to the democratic societies in which they live. In line with the RFCDC, the OECD [10] (p. 4) promotes the acquiring of a global perspective in examining local, global, and intercultural issues, interacting successfully and respectfully with others while taking responsible action toward collective well-being. Building on the proposed global competence framework, the OECD stresses the relevance of competencies assessment.

2. Democratic Competencies

Democracy is a form of governance responsive to the views of the majority, and that requires citizens’ commitment to participate actively in the public good. The Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue [11] points out that democratic and intercultural competencies are not acquired automatically by citizens but, instead, need to be learned and practiced. Education is uniquely positioned to guide and support learners—as citizens—in this and empower them. Educational Institutions can help learners develop in the acquirement of the competencies they need to become active and autonomous participants in democracy, intercultural dialogue, and society, giving them the tools to craft their own scopes while respecting human rights, the dignity of others, and democratic processes [9].
According to Barrett [12] (p. 9), democratic competence can be defined as “the ability to select, activate, organize, and apply relevant psychological resources in order to respond appropriately and effectively to the demands, challenges, and opportunities that are presented by democratic situations”. This competence should be perceived in dynamic terms as competent individuals will mobilize and use psychological resources dynamically and fluidly, self-regulating their behavior and adjusting it according to situational circumstances.
Democratic competencies include skills, knowledge and understanding, and values and attitudes, regarded as essential for behaving appropriately and effectively in democratic and intercultural situations. Values and attitudes are considered psychological resources that can be activated, organized, and applied through behavior to respond appropriately and effectively in democratic and intercultural situations [9].

3. eSerivice-Learning

Even if the learning capacity of SL is embedded in hands-on, experiential learning in the community, online SL learning has been developed to deal with those situations in which face-to-face SL is not practicable. Waldner et al. [13] identified different ways of online SL. They included (a) hybrid forms where: the instructional part is online and the service part is offline, or vice versa (type I and type II, respectively); and the instructional part and service are partially online and partially offline (type III); and (b) an extreme online SL type (XE-SL; type IV), where both instructional and service parts take place online.

4. eSerivice-Learning—What Are the Benefits for Students?

Many scholars claim that the benefits of eSL and XE-SL for students are equivalent to offline “traditional” SL [14], while others identify additional benefits, including accessibility, cost reduction, and capacity to reach diverse communities [15].
Among benefits, eSL is reported to stimulate students’ teamwork competency [16], social justice and civic attitudes [17], learning engagement, gradual increment in emotional engagement during XE-SL experiences, starting from the initial uncertainty and mixed feelings to final positive emotions [18], and life satisfaction even during challenging situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic [19]. According to the literature, eSL can facilitate the application of textbook knowledge to solve actual problems while fostering more university-to-community relationships and extending the university’s reach with the geographic dispersion of the online student populations [20]. Moreover, removing geographical constraints is reported to facilitate (virtual) mobility, offering students the opportunity to develop global awareness of social issues [18][21].
However, with few exceptions, the literature on eSL benefits for students is anecdotal [13]. Faulconer [22] reviewed the papers published between 2010 and 2020 on type II and IV SL (where service takes place online) and found that few studies described how students were assessed on their eService-Learning activities. Only one reported using rubrics to evaluate transferable skills [7]. Faulconer [22] (p. 15) concluded that assessment was largely overlooked in the research of eService-Learning, possibly because it still represents a challenge in SL. She suggested using mixed-methods research to understand better how to evaluate and assess eService-Learning projects.
The problem of online teaching and learning assessment is not exclusively limited to eSL. In a systematic review of 262 studies conducted in 2020 during the “global online semester” to analyze students’ learning experiences during the pandemic, Bond et al. [23] highlighted how limited attention was devoted to learning outcomes assessment stressing the relevance of further exploration.
Outcomes-based assessment is imperative in programs such as Service-Learning, that build on university–community partnership. Learning outcomes, indeed, indicate to faculty, students, and the community the specific results expected from participation in the program [24] and shape the collaborative design of SL courses between faculty and community partners.
Moreover, given that the learning dimension of SL relies heavily on hands-on experience in the community, understanding how the online emergency shift affected the capacity of XE-SL to achieve its learning objectives (i.e., developing personal, transferable, and democratic competencies) is of utmost relevance.

References

  1. Nowell, B.; Boyd, N. Viewing community as responsibility as well as resource: Deconstructing the theoretical roots of psychological sense of community. J. Community Psychol. 2010, 38, 828–841.
  2. Aramburuzabala, P.; McIlrath, L.; Opazo, H. Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education: Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement; Routledge: Abingdon, UK, 2019.
  3. Celio, C.I.; Durlak, J.; Dymnicki, A. A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Service Learning on Students. J. Exp. Educ. 2011, 34, 164–181.
  4. Yorio, P.L.; Ye, F. A meta-analysis on the effects of service-learning on the social, personal, and cognitive outcomes of learning. Acad. Manag. Learn. Educ. 2012, 11, 9–27.
  5. Weiler, L.; Haddock, S.; Zimmerman, T.S.; Krafchick, J.; Henry, K.; Rudisill, S. Benefits derived by college students from mentoring at-risk youth in a service-learning course. Am. J. Community Psychol. 2013, 52, 236–248.
  6. Salam, M.; Iskandar, D.N.A.; Ibrahim, D.H.A.; Farooq, M.S. Service learning in higher education: A systematic literature review. Asia Pac. Educ. Rev. 2019, 20, 573–593.
  7. Marcus, V.B.; Atan, N.A.; Talib, R.; Latif, A.A.; Yusof, S.M. Promoting Students’ Generic Skills with the Integration of e-Service Learning Platform. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. 2019, 14, 4–17.
  8. Council of Europe. Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning; Council of Europe: Strasbourg, France, 22 May 2018; Available online: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2018.189.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:C:2018:189:TOC (accessed on 26 January 2022).
  9. Barrett, M.; De Bivar Black, L.; Byram, M.; Faltýn, J.; Gudmundson, L.; Van’t Land, H.; Lenz, C.; Mompoint-Gaillard, P.; Popović, M.; Rus, C.; et al. Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture: Volume 1: Context, Concepts and Model; Council of Europe: Strasbourg, France, 2018; Available online: https://tinyurl.com/wuo6mhj (accessed on 26 January 2022).
  10. OECD. Preparing Our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World: The OECD PISA Global Competence Framework. 2018. Available online: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/Handbook-PISA-2018-Global-Competence.pdf (accessed on 26 January 2022).
  11. Council of Europe. White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: ‘Living Together as Equals in Dignity’; Council of Europe: Strasbourg, France, 7 May 2008; Available online: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/source/white%20paper_final_revised_en.pdf (accessed on 26 January 2022).
  12. Barrett, M. The Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture: Policy context, content and impact. Lond. Rev. Educ. 2020, 18, 1–17.
  13. Waldner, L.S.; Widener, M.C.; McGorry, S.Y. E-service learning: The evolution of service-learning to engage a growing online student population. J. High. Educ. Outreach Engagem. 2012, 16, 123–150. Available online: https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/936/935 (accessed on 25 February 2022).
  14. McGorry, S.Y. No significant difference in service learning online. J. Asynchronous Learn. Netw. 2012, 16, 45–54.
  15. Figuccio, M.J. Examining the efficacy of e-service-learning. Front. Educ. 2020, 1–6.
  16. Yusof, A.; Atan, N.A.; Harun, J.; Doulatabadi, M. Developing students graduate attributes in service learning project through online platform. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Bangkok, Thailand, 5–7 March 2019; pp. 3524–3537.
  17. Ahmad, I.; Gul, R. Impact of Online Service-Learning on Civic and Social Justice Behavior of Undergraduate Laboratory-Based Graduates. Hum. Arenas 2021, 1–16.
  18. Marcus, V.B.; Atan, N.A.; Yusof, S.M.; Tahir, L. A Systematic Review of e-Service Learning in Higher Education. Int. J. Innov. Manag. 2020, 14, 4–14.
  19. Leung, H.; Shek, D.T.L.; Dou, D. Evaluation of Service-Learning in Project WeCan under COVID-19 in a Chinese Context. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 3596.
  20. Helms, M.M.; Rutti, R.M.; Hervani, A.A.; LaBonte, J.; Sarkarat, S. Implementing and evaluating online service learning projects. J. Educ. Bus. 2015, 90, 369–378.
  21. EASLHE. Practical Guide on E-Service-Learning in Response to COVID-19. 2020. Available online: https://www.eoslhe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Practical-guide-on-e-Service-Learning_web.pdf (accessed on 26 January 2022).
  22. Faulconer, E. eService-Learning: A Decade of Research in Undergraduate Online Service–learning. Am. J. Distance Educ. 2021, 35, 100–117.
  23. Bond, M.; Bedenlier, S.; Marín, V.I.; Händel, M. Emergency remote teaching in higher education: Mapping the first global online semester. Int. J. Educ. Technol. High. Educ. 2021, 18, 50.
  24. Norris, J.M. The why (and how) of assessing student learning outcomes in college foreign language programs. Mod. Lang. J. 2006, 90, 576–583. Available online: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4127045 (accessed on 25 February 2022).
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Subjects: Psychology
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Christian Compare
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Cinzia Albanesi
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Entry Collection: COVID-19
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Update Date: 01 Apr 2022
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