This project will establish connections between HEIs and rural communities as well as their beneficiaries. Therefore, 4 main target groups can be identified:
- University students
- Academic teachers involved in service-learning (SL) courses in the participating countries / teachers and authorities from any university interested in rural SL;
- Rural organizations: e.g. LAGs, NGOs, rural agencies and associations interested in community-university partnerships;
- Beneficiaries of the services provided: rural entrepreneurs, farmers, unemployed youth, retirees, rural housewives and rural businesses in need of skills and solutions that can be provided by students
University students
University students appear to have a preference for SL placements close to campus (which is usually in an urban area), frequently because of longer travel times and the cost of transportation to rural communities (Stoecker and Schmidt, 2008). But, with the advancement of technology, today’s students have the opportunities to engage in SL activities that involve serving the communities through online civic action called Service-eLearning (Waldner, McGorry & Widener, 2012) Service-eLearning brings a potential for students to use SL in rural areas and this can be realized as a SL Hackathon (WP4).
The Hackathon is a part of the new transnational academic module (WP2) with courses on rural social entrepreneurship (SE) and rural SL that satisfy rural community needs identified in WP1. Courses in the module and Hackathon will be implemented in WP4, assigned ECTS and nationally accredited.
Also, this module will improve the community relevance of academic courses provided by teachers of the consortium.
Academic teachers
In rural SL, academic teachers will need to revisit their approach to working with communities and allow for differences between rural and urban settings (Lapping, 1999). Therefore, in WP2, “training materials and teaching guidelines for HE teachers on rural SL” will be developed and integrated in MOOC on rural SL
Rural organizations
Rural organizations will serve as brokers between rural beneficiaries and students but may lack direct experience in working with students. Therefore, in WP2 “Training materials for rural partners” will be developed and integrated in online World café (WP4).
The collaborative hub (WP3) will bridge the gap between rural organizations that aim to connect rural entities to improve the rural development (but lack access to SL) and universities that aim to connect students, faculty and local community (but rarely address rural issues). It will allow users to list their needs and offer their expertise. They will be able to browse the database of collaborators and the database of projects.
Rural businesses will receive the student solutions developed in Hackathon, test and evaluate them and report to the rural partners directly. Along with the solutions, students will also publish learning materials in the form of a dedicated step-by-step implementation guide.