Conference Agenda

This presentation introduces the OPENvhb online course Service Learning for Sustainable Development, a digitally mediated learning environment designed to support students, faculty, and potential service partners in planning, implementing, and reflecting on service-learning projects in the field of sustainability. The course was developed by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München and the University of Applied Sciences Landshut and is offered as a self-paced, free online course in German on the OPENvhb platform. An English version is planned. The course combines theoretical input with practical guidance for project-based learning.

The contribution is relevant to Track A, Didactical Methods for Effective Democracy Education, especially to the question of how digital tools can facilitate democratic participation and inclusive collaboration. Although the course focuses on sustainable development, it explicitly connects service-learning with civic responsibility, cooperation, and reflective engagement with real-world needs. Its digital design uses a variety of interactive formats, including interactive videos and audios, regular self-tests with automated feedback, and a structured learning journal that accompanies learners throughout the course. These elements are intended to lower barriers to participation, support diverse learning paths, and enable participants to work autonomously, individually or in small groups, while being guided through their service-learning experiences.

A central feature of the course is the learning journal, which encourages structured preparation and reflection on key stages of the service-learning process, including identifying real needs, choosing a transformation field in sustainable development, finding service partners, developing project ideas, dealing with challenges, presenting results, and evaluating learning experiences. The learning journal makes reflection visible, traceable, and transferable across contexts. The course therefore illustrates how service-learning can foster not only student-led sustainability-oriented action, but also critical reflection, shared responsibility, and participation.

The presentation will outline the course concept and selected findings from the pilot phase with el mundo students at LMU. It will argue that digitally supported service-learning can strengthen democratic learning processes by enabling transdisciplinary collaboration, structured reflection, and meaningful engagement with social, ecological, economic, and political challenges.