Evaluation of Service-Learning in Project WeCan under COVID-19 in a Chinese Context

Hildie Leung, Daniel T. L. Shek and Diya Dou
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Hildie Leung: Women’s Leadership Center, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Daniel T. L. Shek: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Diya Dou: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Service-learning is a widely adopted educational pedagogy and philosophy. With the support from the Wharf (Holdings) Limited (Group), service-learning was conducted in the “Project WeCan ” in Hong Kong. Prior to COVID-19, traditional service-learning was implemented with students learning in the classroom and applying their knowledge and skills to the community through providing direct face-to-face service. With the COVID-19 outbreak in the 2019–20 academic year, school lockdown measures appeared. Students had to learn online and to design and implement service offsite. As the impacts of this rapid shift in paradigm remain unknown, this study examined changes in university students using a pretest–posttest design ( n = 124) and perceptions of service-learning experience via the subjective outcome evaluation design ( n = 192) under COVID-19. The authors also investigated service recipients’ ( n = 56) satisfaction with service activities they participated in during the pandemic. Both objective outcome evaluation and subjective outcome evaluation findings revealed that service providers (university students) and recipients (secondary school students) experienced benefits from the Project. Findings support the benefits of online service-learning in “Project WeCan ” even during unprecedented times such as COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; service-learning; positive youth development; service leadership; university-corporate-community collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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