Abstract:

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is an online university whose mission is to provide people with lifelong learning and education by designing learning activities using advanced technological and communication resources. A distinctive trait of UOC's educational model is the promotion of collective knowledge-building through an interdisciplinary and open approach to students’ educational, social, and working experience (Gros, 2009). This is achieved by incorporating collaborative learning methodologies that involve problem-solving, collective development of projects, joint creation of products (Lalueza & Creus, 2013) and cooperative research.

In this framework, we highlight the development of two specific teaching innovation projects, both designed from a service-learning perspective. Service-learning can be defined as a pedagogical approach that attempts to integrate community service in the academic curriculum. Through service-learning, students engage in organised activities designed to meet community needs and, at the same time, enhance their intellectual, social, and ethical development (Porter Honnet & Poulsen, 1989). From a methodological point of view it places community-improvement and social-engagement in the centre of the learning process, while reinforcing students’ cross-disciplinary skills, as critical thinking, co-creation or community building (Billig, Root, & Jesse, 2005). But even though service-learning has been deeply studied and is well recognized as a rich learning tool in face-to-face higher education, less is known about the challenges related to its implementation in an e-Learning context. Following this idea, this paper reports on the process and discusses the preliminary findings of two in-progress innovation projects that explore service-learning as a pedagogical approach in distance education.

- Project 1: L’Agència is a virtual platform in which students have the opportunity to develop communication projects, experiencing authentic professional dynamics and issues. Moreover, they do so from a perspective of social commitment based on voluntary participation, as the projects are developed for free to non-profit organisations. This virtual agency was created in 2012 and since then more than 100 students have taken part in its activities. This teaching innovation project is being carried out in the context of a Communication Degree course that prepares students with the necessary skills to design, plan, implement, and evaluate communication projects.
- Project 2: Through Participatory Final Degree Projects students have the opportunity of developing their degree or master final dissertation focusing on a specific social need of their community, and working in collaboration with a non-profit organisation or a social entrepreneurship. Departing from needs and challenges identified by different organisations, students are invited to develop research questions through a participatory research.

We will share the preliminary results of a study focused on the above-mentioned teaching innovation projects. Our main aim is the comprehension of participants’ experience, paying special attention to the patterns of interaction generated among students and non-profit organisations. Another question that we will explore in our presentation is how participants’ experience is supported and/or constrained by the e-Learning technological environment.

Keywords:

Co-creation, service-learning, community engagement, e-learning innovation, higher education.