As an initiative of the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning, and building on the legacy of the Community Outreach Partnership Center at UIS, it is the mission of the Community Outreach Center Online to apply online technology and expertise in support of those who are socially underserved  or underserved by the Internet.

A focus of activities is to enable the underserved to take advantage of the learning and information resources that will enable them to enrich their lives and advance their goals and aspirations.

The Community Outreach Center Online will strive to identify those in the broader community who have needs that can be met through online services and, working in concert with faculty, staff and students at the University of Illinois, will seek to meet those needs. This will also provide the UIS community with an opportunity for service learning and other hands on ways to enrich our educational horizons.

Service-Learning is usually a course with content and theory AND includes engagement by the student understood through reflection. The classroom and the engagement become one.

It is a method of instruction whereby students or participants learn and develop skills through unpaid active participation in community service. It integrates and enhances the academic curriculum of the students or the educational components of the local community service program.

Best Resource in Service Learning Online
Implementing Service Learning in an Online Communities Course

The paper describes the process of implementing service learning in an Information Systems course on Online Communities. This paper presents the benefits of service learning for communities, background of the course topic, and discuss the structure needed to implement service learning. MORE >>
http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/Papers/lazar_iaim99.pdf