SLS-8b2 An e-Learning course on SL for students for a wider audience

Previously, PolyU’s had developed an e-Learning module for teaching the basic concepts  of service-learning to our undergraduate students, to be adopted optionally as a part of service-learning courses at PolyU.  In fact, the module has evolved through several generations as we gained experience.  Based on this experience, a new e-Learning course for a wider audience was developed.  This new course is different from the earlier PolyU-specific module in a number of important aspects.  First of all, the material was completely revamped to be more streamlined and concise, based on the experience gained in running the PolyU-specific module for several years.  Secondly, the content is now made more suitable for a wider audience.  For example, case studies in the earlier, PolyU-specific version made extensive sue of projects cared out by PolyU teams.  In the new version, a much wider range of projects are used as case studies.  

The new student e-Learning course “Learn to Serve, Serve to Learn” consists of the following units:

1. What is Service-Learning
2. Benefits of Service-Learning
3. Responsibilities, Attitude and Ethics in Service-Learning
4. Reflection on Your Service-Learning Experience

The course include a wide variety of learning activities, such as short videos, concept tests, case studies experience sharing by students who have completed service-learning subjects. Based on the the first and second rounds of the pilot run, the visualisation of the content was further improved, with enhanced graphics to provide a better learning experience.  The course was fully implemented at the 4 participating institutions in the second semester of 2019/20 with an enrolment of over 2,300 students.  

The e-Learning course can serve multiple purposes.  The basic concepts have to be taught in essentially all SL courses.  By adopting the e-Learning course, a SL teacher can avoid duplicating the effort that went into developing the e-Learning course, and concentrating on the specific content for his/her own course.  It can also be used to ensure a degree of consistency in the teaching of basic concepts.   Some teachers also use the e-Learning course as part of a flipped-classroom approach.  After the students have gone through the e-Learning course, the teacher brings them to face-to-face discussions on a specific topic based on the material covered in the e-Learning course.