{"id":52280,"date":"2020-05-14T13:44:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T20:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=52280"},"modified":"2020-05-14T13:44:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T20:44:25","slug":"social-distancing-is-no-reason-to-stop-service-learning-just-do-it-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/social-distancing-is-no-reason-to-stop-service-learning-just-do-it-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning \u2013 just do it online"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

At Troy University in Alabama, students went online to help a county with a high infant mortality rate in the state of Georgia to\u00a0analyze health disparities and develop solutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Cornell University, where I teach, law students are\u00a0providing legal services online to death-row inmates in Tanzania <\/a>\u00a0and children and\u00a0young farmworkers in upstate New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At five state universities in the U.S. heartland, students are helping Michigan towns\u00a0create government websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are all examples of \u201ce-service learning\u201d \u2013 that is,\u00a0service learning<\/a>\u00a0that takes place online. Service learning refers to a wide range of student experiences meant to help a community organization, local government or business.<\/p>\n

I am an\u00a0education researcher<\/a>\u00a0and \u2013 along with my colleague Yue Li \u2013 I am investigating the\u00a0best ways to engage students in e-service learning<\/a>, both here in the U.S. and\u00a0around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even though colleges and universities have shut down their campuses due to COVID-19, e-service learning shows how college students can still do their volunteerism in the virtual world. Students need not be physically present to help support\u00a0local government<\/a>,\u00a0local nonprofits<\/a>\u00a0and vulnerable individuals like\u00a0farmworkers<\/a>, all of whom have a greater need for the help of volunteers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Vast benefits<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Service learning<\/a>\u00a0is not meant only to help community organizations, governmental agencies and businesses. It\u2019s also meant to advance the student\u2019s individual academic goals.<\/p>\n

A key part of service learning is for students to reflect on the service they actually do and how whatever they are studying \u2013 whether it be health, law or the\u00a0environment<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 relates to the real world. Reflection also helps students clarify their\u00a0personal values and gain a sense of civic responsibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Better outcomes<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Compared to peers who didn\u2019t do service learning in college, graduates who did participate in service learning report\u00a0higher levels of civic-mindedness<\/a>. That is to say, they are more likely to work with others to achieve public goals.<\/p>\n

For community organizations, the\u00a0benefits of having college students help<\/a>\u00a0with their work are vast. Students can offer companionship for elderly clients, become role models for high school students or simply serve as an extra hand to tackle a nonprofit\u2019s back-burner project.<\/p>\n

Research applied<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Through e-service learning, communities can gain access to the latest university research. For instance, residents of Gracias Lempira, Honduras, and Rohne Village, India, used engineering research to build\u00a0electricity-free water purification systems<\/a>. And in Louisville, Kentucky, students from several universities created models to help residents decide where to plant trees to cut down on air pollution.<\/p>\n

Each partnership has unique benefits. For instance, an official at an international climate action group \u2013\u00a0Team 54 Project International<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 remarked on how a Cornell University student played a key role in gathering information for a\u00a0tree-planting guide<\/a>. The guide will be used to help plant trees in Serbia that are suited for the region. The guide will also serve as a template for similar tree-planting projects around the world.<\/p>\n

Is virtual the same?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Can students still have a meaningful service learning experience in cyberspace?<\/p>\n

A study of business marketing students shows that students who engaged in online service learning\u00a0gained the same skills<\/a>, such as the ability to work well with others and understand cultural and racial differences, as those who worked alongside their partners in person.<\/p>\n

Back in 2013, some university scholars predicted that online technologies would\u00a0disrupt<\/a>\u00a0in-person university teaching as it was known, including\u00a0service learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I have\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0is instead of disrupting in-person teaching, e-service learning has enhanced it. It does this by offering opportunities for any student and any nonprofit with an internet connection to form a partnership on short notice. E-service learning has also added new opportunities for busy students to help NGOs overseas, U.S. nonprofits and local governments in other states. Students help with everything from disaster planning to food waste and hunger issues.<\/p>\n

Ever since colleges and universities have been forced to move their instruction online due to COVID-19, critics have worried about whether or not they\u2019re doing a good job. But as schools continue to teach online for the summer and possibly even the fall, similar attention should also be paid \u2013 in my view \u2013 to how well they are engaging students in service learning online.<\/p>\n

Especially with employees working from home due to social distancing, e-service learning may prove itself as one of the most effective ways to prepare students to solve the kinds of problems they will encounter once they start their careers.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Marianne E. Krasny is Professor of Environmental Education and Civic Ecology at Cornell University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Troy University in Alabama, students went online to help a county with a high infant mortality rate in the state of Georgia to\u00a0analyze health disparities and develop solutions. At Cornell University, where I teach, law students are\u00a0providing legal services online to death-row inmates in Tanzania \u00a0and children and\u00a0young farmworkers in upstate New York. At […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":52281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[351697],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-52280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-service-learning-experience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSocial distancing is no reason to stop service learning \u2013 just do it online - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/social-distancing-is-no-reason-to-stop-service-learning-just-do-it-online\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning \u2013 just do it online - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Troy University in Alabama, students went online to help a county with a high infant mortality rate in the state of Georgia to\u00a0analyze health disparities and develop solutions. 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