Service-Learning for Universities, Colleges and K-12

Professors, teachers, educators, staff and centers work with us to streamline the logistics of managing community partnerships and tracking of engagement for students in service-learning courses

I have been managing service projects and student experiences for The University of Texas at Austin for more than ten years, and meeting the demand for online tools that allow students to connect with community, while allowing us to capture student involvement rates, has always been difficult. I've never been satisfied with the range of online management systems available in today's market, and have found it impossible to find one service that effectively tracks, manages, recruits and engages students with our 500+ community partners for all experiences including service-learning, volunteering, professional development etc. This all changed when our office began working with GivePulse; not only are the online tools easy for students, staff and community partners to navigate, but the social media element allows students to form ongoing relationships with the non-profit groups they serve. GivePulse empowers students to share their experiences, which in turns inspires others to get involved in worthy causes. We have finally found a programming team that truly understands how to promote and enhance community engagement efforts!

Amory Baril, University of Texas at Austin
Director of Community Engagement

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Service-Learning & eService-Learning

eService-learning (electronic service-learning) combines service-learning and online learning to enable the delivery of instruction and/or service to occur partially or fully online. With GivePulse, this is augmented by the integration of your existing Learning Management System and system of record.

What is it?
eService-Learning allows students anywhere, regardless of geography, physical constraints, shelter-in-place requirements, work schedule, or other access limitations, to experience service-learning. It also offers online learning a powerful tool for engaging students and supporting community partners.
Various Forms of eService-Learning
eService-Learning can be 100% online instruction with 100% online service projects. There are other permutations that include a mixture of instruction and service that can be onsite and/or online.
Remote & Virtual Volunteering
Information to help you identify and learn more about remote and virtual volunteer projects for students can be found here for remote resources and here for virtual volunteer resources.

EduAppCenter & LTI Installation

The GivePulse LTI is available within the EduAppCenter and any LMS (e.g. Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Schoology, Sakai, Desire2Learn, etc).

EduAppCenter
This education app store is managed by Instructure, creators of Canvas, and provides details of how the GivePulse LTI app can integrate with your LMS. For more details on our app on this portal, you can review it here
Installing the LTI App
The LTI can be set up by any staff member for one or many courses. Ideally, the IT administrators will set this up for specific courses or allow teachers, faculty, and staff to decide for their own courses and assignments.
App Configuration File
For IT administrators, setup requires leveraging the configuration file and access to the GivePulse keys to activate the integration for your school or institution. Note, faculty members can activate the LTI without IT assistance. If you are a faculty member and would like assistance, feel free to reach out to our LMS team

Course Management

Synchronize your service-learning course details and rosters to streamline faculty, staff, partner and student academic engagement

Integrations
Integrate with your information database so that course schedules, rosters, and faculty involvement are synchronized. In addition, augment existing Learning Management Systems to streamline faculty, staff and student engagement with partners
Define Course Requirements
Select and customize what partnerships, events and opportunities should display in the class and set the requirements and syllabus to augment your current Learning Management System
Reporting
Determine what quantitative and qualitative outputs (hours, reflections etc.) are needed to gauge student learning outcomes and run reports

Applications

Manage, create, edit, approve and review partner applications and student-to-partner applications

Community Partner Applications
Set up Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) documents and define a unique application to gather details of the potential partnership for you, your partner and a collection of individuals to review and approve
Student & Partner Applications
Set up an MOU between the student, the partner and yourself, in which all three stakeholders can pass the MOU to the other(s) for further review, editing and acceptance
Review, Edit and Approve
Have one single place to review, edit, manage and approve all pending applications to track progress and run reports

Community Partners Database

Our all-in-one solution allows you and your partners complete access to oversee user profiles and match interests, activities, events and opportunities with students, faculty, staff, researchers and alumni

Group & Individual Profiles
Onboard partner profiles and your community of users. Partners can then update their profiles, synchronize with social media, verify contact information, and create new events and opportunities
Browsing, Searching & Filtering
Use our map, calendar or list view to see all the community partners and agencies available to affiliate with. Sort, filter or even search by keywords, skills and causes to find and partner with relevant organizations
Events & Volunteer Management
Expose capabilities for partners and groups to manage all their events and opportunities, track registration and rsvps, communicate with users and add administrators

Placements & Scheduling

Oversee logistics and scheduling for individuals and groups, while enabling organizers and coordinators to know exactly the status of all placements by attendance, hours, reflections and other outputs (or metrics) you define

Scheduling
Set up orientation dates, one-time events, or ongoing opportunities and post them in a calendar, map or list
Calendar
Set up events, trainings, opportunities and activities on a calendar for your community to browse, register and track their engagement
Tracking
Have one single location to track registrations, RSVPs, waitlists and all the data that comes with the engagement including hours, transportation, attendance, reflections and other outputs

Assessment

Survey, track and review all data related to student learning and impact on the community partners

Survey
Send out a unique survey anonymously or via a login for small group of students, the whole institution, or limited specific partners
Qualitative & Quantitative
Configure and design a survey with quantitative and qualitative fields so you can accurately collect data for the assessment of your community impact
Reporting
Have one single place to gather all data collected so you can review and report on specific users, activities, groups and partners

Verification

Automated verification of attendance by community partners

Attendance
Our system allows organizers and administrators to sign people in for attendance tracking purposes. You can also set up "clocked-in" and "clocked-out" capabilities to track various outputs such as hours
Outputs
The most popular output gathered is service hours, but our system helps administrators and researchers define new metrics important to your institution, the community and the student's engagement
Conversations
Impact reflections allow faculty, students and partners to engage in a productive and targeted dialogue. This allows the conversation to continue past the experience, past the class, and into the future

Track, Share and Measure Impacts

We help cities, educational institutions, businesses, nonprofits and organizations of all sizes come together to move the needle toward social good by capturing impacts (from simple outputs like hours or donations to more complex schemas and data) to achieve outcomes and gain insights

Engaged Scholarship & Research
We partner with higher ed institutions to better understand the impact of volunteerism, fundraising and service in the community. Many of these partnerships involve collaborating with and integrating GivePulse into various databases to enable researchers and administrators to explore how service impacts both student learning and institutional engagement with the community
Reflect on your experiences and share your story
We put a strong emphasis in pre and post reflection. In most instances, these reflections provide general feedback to help improve experiences and gauge individual growth. You can also request specific information before and after any opportunity

Making a center, workspace and activity safe, clean and welcoming

It's imperative that all centers, programs and initiatives have procedures and ongoing tasks in place to protect the health and safety of volunteers, donors, clients and members of the community. Coordinators and admins who are prepared can publish or list opportunities for virtual experiences or the COVID-19 option here.

Wipe Down Center
It is uncertain how long coronavirus can last on surfaces (for this and other information, see the WHO FAQs: https://www.who.int/en/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public). In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus for those in your center, wipe it down with alcohol-based disinfectants both before and after it is in use. If you are using a tablet for volunteer check-in, make sure to sanitize it regularly. If volunteers or employees are using shared computers or tools, make sure they wash their hands regularly, use hand sanitizer, and wipe down their stations before and after use as well.
Tools & Supplies Clean-up
It is also recommended the organization ensures all tools (laptops, tablets, phones, supplies and stationary) be wiped or cleaned per usage or activity. At the same time, individuals and groups who are committed to a program or activity should double check their workspace and tools are cleaned to protect their own safety and health.
Provide Disinfectant Wipes and Hand Sanitizing Solutions
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are almost as effective as hand-washing (although we always recommend that volunteers, employees, and clients wash their hands for at least 20 seconds as often as possible). Provide this to anyone engaging in your organization’s space to avoid transmission of the virus. In addition, provide disinfectant wipes so that any droplets containing the virus can be removed before individuals touch surfaces.

Volunteer Preparation

It's imperative that all volunteers, donors and individuals who anticipate interacting with others either physically distance themselves or ensure that they are healthy, capable and willing. Individuals who meet these health requirements can get involved now here.

Wash Hands and Be Clean
The CDC recommends that you wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, particularly after sneezing or coughing, when caring for the sick, before, after, and during food preparation, before eating, after use of toilets, when hands are visibly dirty, and after handling animals. Washing hands often and thoroughly (for at least 20 seconds) will help to prevent the spread of the virus, both to yourself and others. Avoid touching your face. If you cannot wash your hands, frequently use an alcohol-based hand rub/sanitizer.
Cover Coughs and Sneezes
Always cover your coughs and sneezes with your inner elbow or a tissue (if into a tissue, please dispose immediately and wash your hands). Droplets can spread the virus; good respiratory hygiene helps to protect those around you from the potential spread of the virus. This is particularly true given that droplets can remain on surfaces long after you have left, leaving all those who come into contact vulnerable.
Physical (also known as Social) Distancing
Maintaining six feet of physical distance can prevent the spread of virus, as this is how far droplets travel after a cough or a sneeze. Physical distance can protect you and those around you alike. Note: while this has been referred to as social distancing, increasingly the term physical distancing is being preferred, as social connection is of particular importance at this time.

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