2023 Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 55-65
In anticipation of the onset of the year 2020, a global pandemic of the COVID-19 emerged, prompting educational authorities and institutions in Japan to consider measures for preventing its spread, often surpassing the efforts in other sectors. They faced the imperative of swiftly preparing and securing the learning environment for the upcoming academic year. Notably, challenges arose in designing educational strategies for activities involving fieldwork, practical training, research, and experiments conducted on-site.
Community-based learning initiatives, including service learning, inherently rely on physical presence in the field. In the context of restrictions on physical activities, a reevaluation of instructional design and the introduction of innovative approaches became necessary. This research focuses on the learning outcomes when community-based learning, situated at a national university in Sanyo region, was conducted via remote instruction. Utilizing ethnographic methods with a focus on the narratives of university students, our analysis suggests that even when compelled to resort to remote instruction due to activity limitations, achieving the expected learning outcomes is not an insurmountable challenge with thoughtful instructional design adaptations.
