Call for Manuscripts: Service-eLearning: Educating for Citizenship

Posted by on July 21, 2006

Call for Manuscripts

Service-eLearning: Educating for Citizenship
published by Anker Publishing Company (http://www.ankerpub.com)

Over the last decade, two movements in higher education have grown simultaneously to become firmly established features of the educational landscape. Service-learning is an ?academically rigorous instructional method that incorporates meaningful community service into the curriculum. Focusing on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility, service-learning involves students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, respect for others, and commitment to the common good? (DiPadova-Stocks, 2006). Distance education has grown from paper-based correspondence courses to highly interactive and dynamic pedagogies that incorporate online technologies to ensure rapid and meaningful interaction between geographically-dispersed faculty and students. The goal of this edited collection is to consider how these two educational initiatives have and can combine to further encourage civic engagement while meeting the demands of an increasingly global, competitive, and diverse educational marketplace.

This edited collection, the first of its kind, seeks manuscripts addressing the emergent blending of service-learning and eLearning. This call seeks manuscripts representing a range of experience with service eLearning in its many potential forms:

* Face-to-face service-learning courses that incorporate online technologies to facilitate some aspect of the experience;
* Hybrid courses that include both face-to-face and online class meetings/discussions; and
* Fully online courses in which faculty and students complete all coursework, interaction, and evaluation in the online environment.

Recognizing the cross-disciplinary nature of both service-learning and eLearning, manuscripts utilizing various qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be accepted, from empirical, data-driven research to course plans/classroom-based narratives.

While all manuscripts are expected to be grounded in relevant theory, papers should ample use of examples, artifacts, and student feedback to integrate theory and practice and to ensure maximum generalizability to other researchers and teacher-scholars interested in service-eLearning.

This collection will be organized into three sections, representing key stakeholders/perspectives involved in considering service-learning in electronic learning contexts. The questions below are suggestive and are in no way exhaustive of the topics solicited.

Section One: Institutional/Programmatic Reflections (submissions of 15-20 pages in length)

* How can online technologies be used to enliven an institution?s service-learning curricula and/or broaden the (conceptual or geographic) scope of service-learning initiatives?
* How can institutions establish infrastructures, or add to existing infrastructures, to support sustainable service-learning programs?programs that will provide the necessary education and administrative support to full-time and part-time (adjunct) faculty seeking to create various models of service-learning courses online?
* What special policies or procedures must be implemented as service-learning moves into online learning contexts? Do programmatic assessment measures, for instance, require revision?
* On many campuses, a gulf still exists between face-to-face and online programs. How can service-learning be used to address perceived shortcomings or concerns about quality that often marginalize online programs in the eyes of some faculty and administrators?
* How can service-eLearning help institutions and programs connect students with global and international needs?

Section Two: Faculty Course Reflections (submissions of 15-20 pages in length)

* What successful models/best practices for service-eLearning (in all of its potential diversity) exist, and how can faculty interested in developing a reciprocal relationship between service-learning and online learning utilize existing course models?
* How can integrating a service-learning component into online curricula promote the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, etc. often perceived as lacking in the online environment?
* What preparation for citizenship can be identified and nurtured through service-eLearning?
* How can faculty, while at a distance, assist online students in determining service placements and fostering relationships with community partners across the country and even internationally?
* Recognizing the needs and expectations of adult students, many of whom choose to take courses online due to work demands or military responsibilities, what options or alternatives for service placements should be considered? Does this student population necessitate a redefined notion of acceptable service placements/partnerships?
* Can service placements occur completely online? What would define a legitimate and responsible ?virtual? service-learning placement?
* Reflection is an essential component of service-learning. How can online technologies be used to facilitate new and meaningful types of reflection for service-learning students?

Section Three: Student and Community Partner Reflections (submissions of approx. 10 pages in length)

* From the community partner perspective, what are the benefits and disadvantages to working with 100% online students in your community? Does the lack of a face-to-face classroom and faculty connection have an implication on the quality of student involvement in the service experience?
* From the perspective of the student learner (either first-hand or as reported through faculty), how are online technologies best utilized to connect academic learning outcomes to service experiences?
* What unique constraints face fully online students, ones who never meet their professor or fellow students ?in person,? in successfully completing face-to-face service placements, especially considering that many online courses are also accelerated?
* What guidelines/best practices can be suggested for establishing effective relationships between community partners, students, and faculty, when the faculty member is not physically present to oversee the service experience?

Submission Information:

All manuscripts are blind peer-reviewed. Authors are requested to submit their manuscripts by November 1, 2006. Authors will receive a decision from reviewers on or before February 1, 2007; final versions of accepted manuscripts will be due to editors on March 1, 2007.

Manuscripts should be no more than 15-20 pages in length, including references and appendices, and should follow the formatting style of the American Psychological Association (5th Edition). If drawing primarily from anecdotal evidence, submissions for the third category, Student and Community Partner Reflections, may be shorter (approximately 10 pages). Three hard copies of the manuscript should be submitted, along with a data CD containing the file burned in its original format, as well as in Microsoft Word or in Rich Text Format. Although the hard copies and the data CD should be mailed to primary editor Amber Dailey at the address below, authors may contact any of the volume editors with questions:

Amber Dailey
Assistant Professor of Education
Park University
8700 NW River Park Drive
Parkville, Missouri 64152
816-584-6339

Emily Donnelli
Assistant Professor of English
Park University
emilyd@park.edu
816-584-6779

Laurie DiPadova-Stocks
Dean, Hauptman School for Public Affairs
Park University
ldipadovastocks@park.edu
816-421-1125, ext. 5517