Serving Children and Adolescents in Need during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluation of Service-Learning Subjects with and without Face-to-Face Interaction

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 18; no. 4; p. 2114
• Main Authors: Lin, Li, Shek, Daniel T. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22.02.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adolescent; Child; Community service; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Distance learning; Humans; Investigations; Leadership; Learning; Learning activities; Life satisfaction; Pandemics; Perceptions; Students; Teaching; Teaching - trends; Well being; Hong Kong China; United States > US; China; Baltimore Maryland; COVID-19 pandemic; higher education; online teaching and learning; service learning; positive youth development
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18042114

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has posed a great challenge to teaching and learning activities in higher education, particularly for service-learning subjects that involve intensive human interaction. Although service-learning may be transformed to a virtual mode in response to the pandemic, little is known about the impact of this new mode on student learning and well-being. This paper reports a university credit-bearing service-learning subject that involves services toward needy children and adolescents in a non-face-to-face mode under COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the effectiveness of this subject by comparing it with the same subject delivered via a face-to-face mode. Objective outcome evaluation via a pretest-posttest comparison (N = 216) showed that the students who took service-learning subjects with and without face-to-face interaction showed similar positive changes in positive youth development competences, service leadership qualities, and life satisfaction. Subjective outcome evaluation (N = 345) also showed that most students were satisfied with the subject, instructors and benefits regardless of the service mode. The findings highlight the important role of non-face-to-face service learning in promoting college students’ positive growth and well-being.