Service Learning
From ElateWiki
Online courses may involve a range of learning activities that engage the world. One of these is service learning, which places learners into their respective communities—to actively learn and to help solve community challenges. Universities coordinate with the community to set up these learning opportunities where students may apply their theoretical learning and develop new skills while also improving the larger community.
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[edit] Service Learning
Service learning often is a central aspect of an academic curriculum. These activities usually extend over the course of a learning term. These may be within the learner’s own community or may be supported in another country.
Part of the power of service learning is that this gives learners a chance to see how their domain field has relevance to the real world. They may develop a stronger sense of self-efficacy when seeing their capabilities to bring about positive changes. Students also may develop a stronger sense of civic responsibility and awareness.
There are social elements to service learning, too, among the student teams that serve in the community and with individuals in the larger society. Facilitators in the community work with the students to enhance the service learning experience.
[edit] Structured Learning
Service learning is set up as an integral part of a curriculum, as apprenticeships (working as a junior member at a workplace, often for a low wage), internships (a formal program for teaching practical experience for beginnings in an occupation), externships (supervised practice done off-campus and as an “outsider” to the host organization), practicums (hands-on practical work done in a particular field), and field experiences (firsthand work done in a profession).
Here, learners sign contracts to agree to do particular kinds of work with educational value. They must maintain strong professional relationships with their supervisors in the work place. They also must fulfill their work commitments there. They will be assessed based on their performances in the professional workplace, and they will also often be earning academic credit and a grade (based on faculty evaluation) simultaneously.
The administrators of the program must plan the studies; draw out the learning values; collaborate with the community facilitators; mitigate risks for learners, and ensure that all legal releases and disclaimers are signed.
Service learning involves less of a controlled learning setting than a classroom, but that’s where the power of this type of learning lies—in the relatively unfiltered real-world interactions and learning opportunities. Some service learning experiences may result in future volunteerism at the same sponsoring agency as where the learner may have served.
[edit] Authentic Learning
One way that universities and colleges are addressing the suggestion that academic learning is too “ivory tower” is by offering authentic learning experiences. Online course instructors may have a more challenging time creating such experiences because of the highly dispersed nature of many of their students. This may mean that they ask learners to approximate the structured service learning through local university or college alliances.
[edit] See Also
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse: http://www.servicelearning.org/