Information tool for service-learning and volunteering opportunities

Sevice-learning combines learning with the community service in order to provide the meaningful learning experience while managing real-life problems and meeting societal needs. It must, however, be stressed that service learning is not simply academic credit for volunteer work and service to society – the emphasis is on learning and specific learning outcomes are to be achieved by students. In case of the ENHANCE’s universities, a well-designed service learning should include some non-trivial engineering or technology related component. Details about learning activities are available by clicking on the activity name below:

Curricular or extracurricular activity

Service learning can be seen as either part of the curriculum or, more frequently, as an extracurricular activity. In the first case (an obligatory or elective component of the curriculum), this activity should be developed and implemented in a similar way as a typical course. The learning outcomes for the service-learning “course” comprise mostly of skills and social competences with the limited, if any, knowledge component.

Assessment

The assessment of learning outcomes would most likely differ from that used for typical courses. The written examination/test is unlikely to be useful. Instead of it, the review and evaluation of the portfolio submitted by the student might be requested and used as the means to assess (and grade, if necessary) the student’s performance. Such a portfolio can contain various materials documenting the student’s activity, including multimedia materials: photos, audio or video-recordings and the report of  student’s self-assessment and the reflection on the educational experience gained.

The assessment of the learning outcomes achieved by the students may result in a grade. In particular, the grade must be given if the regulations adopted at the university require that each course must be graded “numerically”, i.e. the simple binary grading scale “pass/fail” cannot be applied.