Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Considerations

Considerations for developing virtual/online community engagement component:

• Preparation
  • Providing training for the parties involved
  • Clearly communicate expectations early and often
  • Clearly articulate the value and relevance of service-learning component/experience
• Community Partners
  • If you opt for students to select community partners, provide clear guidelines and parameters
  • If you have specific community partners for the course
    • assess their technical capacity beforehand and coordinating technology options with them
    • include them in the course shell (create space for connection through guest lectures, discussions, reflection, etc..)
• Time
  • Explicitly include time for cbl activities (deadlines to identify and contact community partners, individual and group reflection, community engagement, etc…)  in the syllabus
  • Consider work-life balance of your students if you are requiring specific hours/week
  • Plan extra time for unexpected outcomes
• Reflection
  • Facilitate meaningful discussions about course material and community engagement experience
  • Utilize different modes for students to think, write, and talk (discussion board, zoom, etc..)
  • Schedule time to check in with students (can be done in small groups)

Compiled from:

• Constructing Experiential Learning for Online Courses: The Birth of E-Service (EDUCAUSE article), Dr. Jean Strait & Tim Sauer (2004).
• E-Service Learning: The Evolution of Service-Learning to Engaged a Growing Online Student Population (Journal of Higher Education article) Leora S. Waldner, Sue Y. McGorry, and Murray C. Widener (2012)
• Online Service-Learning (Archived Webinar) Dr. Marie Sandy and Dr. Susan Reed (2017)
• Service Learning in Online Courses (Archived Minnesota Campus Compact Webinar Slides), Dr. Jean Strait (2010)
• Service-Learning in Online Courses: Opportunities and Challenges (Archived Minnesota Campus Compact Webinar slides), Dr. Jean Strait and John Hamerlinck (2011)
• Teaching Service-Learning Online (Advance HE Webinar) Jon Westover (2020) – Link starts youtube video at 11:02

Open Access Learning Modules for Faculty to Develop Curriculum

Minnesota Campus Compact curriculum for their Engaged Faculty Institute.
This includes resources for innovative uses of digital technologies to support civic engagement in higher education, as well as, community-based learning in online teaching. Some of their recommended links for examples are reposted below:

• Grounding Service-Learning in the Digital Age: Exploring a Virtual Sense of Geographic Place Through Online Collaborative Mapping and Mixed Media by Sandy and Franco.
• Engaging Students and Communities Through Innovative Technology, by John Hamerlinck – Archived Webinar
• New Faces of Civic Learning
• Do It Yourself GIS: 20 Free Tools
• Georgia college produces student-written eTextbook
• Gaming for Social Good
• Kurt Squire on Civic Engagement Through Digital Games – video

Virginia Commonwealth University Service-Learning Online
A self-paced, fully online series, open access learning module designed to help higher education instructors create online service-learning classes. Course is intended to take approximately 4-6 hours

Finding Opportunities

• GivePulse includes a search filter for virtual/remote opportunities posted by our community partners.
  • Expand the search to find opportunities posted by organizations who are partnering with colleges and universities across the US. 1) uncheck the PCC filter 2) clear the zip code field (located next to the keyword search)
• DoSomething.org Article: 9 Places to volunteer Online (and make a real Impact)
• Virtual Volunteering Guide from Idealist
• Medium.com Article: Service Learning During Coronavirus: Easy Ideas for Every Subject.

Online Projects

These projects are in the process of bring reposted to PCC’s GivePulse group. This will allow students to easily log their impacts for your course.

• PCC Learning Gardens: Collaborate with a Learning Garden Coordinator to come up with a fun and interactive virtual CBL project – Cascade, Newberg Center, Rock Creek, Southeast, and Sylvania.
• Amnesty International: Amnesty Decoders is a platform for volunteers around the world to use their computers or phones to help our researchers sift through pictures, information and documents. (as of May 2020 no current projects, but great information and data from past projects)
• Be My Eyes: Use the app to assist blind and low-vision individuals
• Library of Congress – By the People: Improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing, and tagging Library of Congress documents.
  • Host a transcribe-a-thon or review-a-thon event – Resources for Educators
• LibriVox: Record audio books for books and materials created prior to 1923
• Missing Maps: Map and/or validate areas where humanitarian organizations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable populations
• Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders: Proofread free ebooks (1 page at a time)
• Red Cross: Digital Volunteers sign up to monitor and engage through social media. Then report directly to the National Headquarters Social Engagement team in coordination with their local chapter communicators. Requires virtual training and committing to at least four (4) continuous hour shifts (including breaks). More virtual opportunities posted on their site.
• Smithsonian: Translate documents
• Write On Campaign: Site provides a list of opportunities to write to those in need
• UN Volunteers (OnlineVolunteering.org): Searchable database of online opportunities to address sustainable development challenges anywhere in the world.
• Zooniverse: online scientific research

General Ideas

• conducting background research or gathering best practices or other information requested the partner(s)
• taping, recording, or streaming performances or workshops to benefit community partner(s)
• creating digital and other social media content, print program materials, or other methods for information-sharing
• undertaking assessment, evaluation, or feedback via phone or web-based services
• offering (or compiling, researching, or brainstorming) strategies that provide indirect support from volunteers as a result of coronavirus
• conducting virtual or phone-based educational supports for youth and adults