Welcome to our New Home!

The Service-Learning Monthly Newsletter is nestling into its new home here on the TLED Updates Blog! Once a month, you can check here for updates to our service-learning program, professional development opportunities, and more. You’ll also be able to access older posts by filtering all blog posts by the ‘Service-Learning’ category.  This new location will help our program gain visibility across TLED – we’re so excited for our new home!

Upcoming Events

Like the rest of ACC, the Service-Learning Program has had to adapt to an online format in response to the Covid-19 crisis. As such, all in-person Service-Learning events and professional development opportunities have been cancelled. Unfortunately, this cancellation extends into the summer, meaning that at this time we do not plan to host our Three-Day Summer Institute on Service-Learning Pedagogy. While this decision saddens us, it is in line with the steps the rest of the institution is taking to ensure the health and safety of our Faculty and Staff.

Complete Your Training Online

With the cancellation of our Spring and Summer in-person training opportunities, we are removing the enrollment cap on our Service-Learning Blackboard Training. We would like to ensure access to our training to whomever would like to take it, especially now that we are not able to offer these workshops in person. If you’d like to enroll in our Service-Learning Online Training, you can register here!

In addition to removing our enrollment cap, we are also working on scheduling Service-Learning Q&A Sessions for Faculty in the course to pose questions for discussion, as well as virtual Service-Learning Follow-Ups for Faculty who have completed the training and would like to start planning for implementation. We invite you to contact Sabryna Groves, Service-Learning Coordinator, to schedule a follow-up or share your suggestions for other Virtual Service-Learning Professional Development Opportunities.

Community Partner Spotlight: Remote Service Opportunities

While we usually like to spotlight one local nonprofit for their outstanding work in the Central Texas community, this month we’ve decided to highlight some of the various ways to be engaged from the comfort and safety of your own home.

Below are a few remote service opportunities that you or your students can participate in. If you’re planning on implementing service-learning in any of your upcoming online courses, these opportunities could be a great way to stay connected while staying indoors:

• Foundation Community Care Calls – Be connected with a single adult resident living within Foundation Communities to help mitigate the isolation caused by social distancing. If you’re interested in applying, complete this volunteer interest form. 
• Senior Access Texas Senior Buddy Program – Connect with and shop for senior citizens who are home-bound due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. See the Senior Access website for more information. 
• Project Gutenberg Volunteer – Help convert public domain literature into E-Books for Project Gutenberg. For more information, visit the Distributed Proofreaders Website. 
• Prison Letter Writing – Prison Abolition Prisoner Support (PAPS) is hosting an online letter writing events. For more information about days and times, email iheartpaps@gmail.com
• SAFE Austin – Compile craft kits, design holiday decorations, or donate food and positive affirmation to SAFE clientele through some of SAFE’s remote volunteer programs. See more information on the SAFE website.
• Bookshare – If you have a scanner at home, help people with disabilities access the written world by scanning books or cleaning up the files used to create accessible books. Sign up at https://www.bookshare.org/cms/get-involved/volunteer/opportunities-us
• The Human Voicebank – Read a few sentences to contribute your voice to be used in assistive technology for people who are unable to vocalize. Learn more at https://www.vocalid.co/voicebank
• Operation Photo Rescue – If you have experience working in PhotoShop, you can help to restore personal photos for victims of floods and other natural disasters. Get started at http://www.operationphotorescue.org/

Service-Learning in the Literature

Thinking about implementing service-learning in your online or hybrid course? The transition to an eService-Learning project has its challenges, but not unheard of. This concept paper, published in the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, reviews two case studies for eService-Learning and some of the various effective practices and limitations that faculty can expect during implementation.

Waldner, McGorry, and Widener. (2010) Extreme E-Service Learning (XE-SL): E-Service Learning in the 100% Online Course. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Vol. 6, No. 4, December. Stable Link 

 Questions or comments about our
Service-Learning Program? 
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servicelearning@austincc.edu