Webinar: Utilizing Service-Learning Projects in an Online Class – Feb 27

Posted by HE-SL Listserv on February 25, 2020

Please join Jonathon H. Westover ([email protected]) on February 27, 2020, 8-9 AM (MDT)  as he presents an AdvanceHE webinar, “Utilizing Service-Learning Projects in an Online Class.”

Webinar Description: In the fall of 2019, Westover launched a new fully online version of his Organizational Development and Change service-learning class, which includes an intensive, semester-long service-learning consulting project that teams of students complete with a community partner. He has been teaching this class for 9 years, in both the traditional F2F and hybrid modalities, but decided to design an online version to provide more options for his students. The challenge has been to find ways to retain the heart of the course, a meaningful and effective service-learning OD team project consulting experience, within a fully online course.

In this presentation, he outlines the main goals in the service-learning online course redesign and highlight both successes and lessons learned after his first semester of course and project implementation:

1. Developing Meaningful Social Presence and Student Collaboration,
2. Create Mechanisms for Strong Teacher-to-Student Communication,
3. Transfer OD Team-based/Service-Learning Consulting Project into Online Environment, and
4. Support Student Success in an Online Environment.

This class involves intensive community-based undergraduate research OD service-learning consulting projects, which combine the direct service and community-based research pathways of social impact, along with the service- learning and undergraduate research HIPs. The student teams work closely with the community partners (as co-educators) and Westover, as the instructor provides a lot of coaching, mentoring, and overall project support and expertise as the students carry out their projects.

By the end of the semester, student teams will have completed a 150+ hour project, complete with a full 30+ page research white paper (including detailed recommendations for the organization, an assessment plan, and a sustainability plan) and related project deliverables and resources for the organization.

Future research will compare outcomes of this new online version of the course with the traditional F2F and hybrid versions of the course that he has taught over the past 9 years:

1. Value of projects to community partners
2. Community partner ratings of student professional skills and competencies
3. Pre/post-test student volunteering and civic attitudes
4. Team evaluation scores
5. Grades and other learning outcomes
6. Student reflections of the class and service-learning consulting project experience
7. Class completion, drop, and failure ratios.

Please click the link join the webinar: https://advance-he.zoom.us/j/737850111

Or iPhone one-tap : US: +19292056099,,737850111#  or +16699006833,,737850111#

Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 929 205 6099  or +1 669 900 6833

Webinar ID: 737 850 111

International numbers available: https://advance-he.zoom.us/u/acgL7Z8zO1