Service-Learning as a Catalyst for Global Learning and Civic Engagement: A Collaborative Pedagogical Experiment

In the collaborative project described in this chapter, the authors incorporate a global learning opportunity into two virtually connected classes at different institutions, one in the USA and one in Ecuador. Both courses included a local service-learning component as a constituent text for the course, in order to enhance both engagements with course content as well as civic literacy. In their joint course connection activities, the authors critically examine issues of poverty, education and social mobility, and health care provision and access. For their global course connection, the authors analyzed the role each of their classes have in promoting global learning. In particular, they pay special attention to several of the AACandU Global Learning Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education Rubric criteria, namely global self-awareness, perspective-taking, cultural diversity, and personal and social responsibility.