STEP 3: REFLECT

Digital Social Impact Course Configurator

In this section of our configurator, we highlight activities and digital tools which you and other HEI educators can use to reflect, review and evaluate your digital social impact learning courses and activities with your students. We pay particular attention in this section to activities and resources you can use to measure your positive social impacts.

Key considerations in Digital Social Impact Course Reflection and Evaluation

Our Digital Social Impact Best Practice Audit is the theoretical and emperical backbone of our Digital Configurator. The content of the audit report was derived from academics in European HEIs with insights and experience in digital teaching formats which aim to create societal impact. Click below to uncover some of the best practices and barriers when reflecting on and evaluating digital social impact courses.

Best Practice Insights in course evaluation

to achieve the desired learning outcomes, the students and educators need to reflect on their experiences.
the reflection tasks should address the learning outcomes and thus be chosen during the course design (Pawlowski, 2018)
possible reflection tasks for students can be written work like blogs, creative projects like photo books, or an oral discussion (Pawlowski, 2018).
Eyler et al. (1996) recommend that the reflection possess the following attributes: It should be continuous, taking place in advance, during, and at the end of the service-learning project (Eyler et al., 1996)
Pawlowski (2018) suggests evaluation based on the learning achievements of the students and their linking course content to the challenge
besides the students’ grading, Pawlowski (2018) stresses the importance of a general reflection by all stakeholders, Musa et al. (2017) underline this recommendation, and thus an evaluation of all stakeholders can be considered a crucial component

Barriers to consider

Evaluation and assessment is mainly done from the perspective of participants and organisers describing their experiences.
However, it is difficult to accurately determine and quantify the impact of the projects on society.
Students’ evaluations may be biased by their grades and assessments, which may limit objectivity.
With regard to the course being delivered entirely digitally in times of the pandemic, some interviewees mentioned that students experienced loneliness and lower motivation as a direct result of social distancing

Insights from other educators and students

In most cases, the course had positive impact on students in terms of developing the love and interest toward to subject, increasing their dedication to the field and boosting motivation for self-development

Jakopec Tomislav, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek

STEP 3

Activities, Lessons, Resources and Topics

Below you can find some tried and tested activities, lessons, resources and topics to assist you in reflecting and evaluating your Digital Social Impact courses and learning initatives. Use the fiters to find the ones you are most interested in. Click to learn more and choose to add your favourites to your Digital Social Impact Course Configurator tool.

Here, there, everywhere

Lessons Learned

Outcomes Harvesting

The 5R framework for reflection

The Ambassador Concept

Theory of Change

UCD Impact Canvas

STEP 3

Digital Tools

Below you can find some of digital tools that can assist you with this stage of your digital social impact course design. As before, you can click to learn more about the tool and can add your favourites to your digital social impact course blueprint. There are many tools available: these are just some of the tools you can use and you should try as many as you can. There is no advertising affiliation between our project and any of the services and products listed.

All
Impact Assessment Tools
Reflect Tools
Student Reflection Tools