Service Learning

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is service-learning?
2. What on-campus resources are available for service-learning?
3. How do I locate community partners for my service-learning projects?
4. What is the best way to go about developing a service-learning course?
5. Is funding available for developing service-learning courses?
6. How does service-learning differ from internships?
7. Will service-learning take up a lot of my time?
8. Does service-learning detract from class time?
9. How do I evaluate students’ performance and learning?
10. How can involvement in service-learning enhance my case for retention, promotion and tenure?
11. What legal risks are involved in service-learning?
12. Is service-learning really worth the extra effort?

1. What is service-learning?

Service-learning is a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and reflect on the service activity in such as way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility.

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2. What on-campus resources are available for service-learning?

The Office of Academic Internships, Cooperative Education and service-learning (OACS), located in Neff 337, works with the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, located in Kettler 234, to support faculty who want to integrate the service-learning strategy into their courses. OACS facilitates community partnerships, provides logistical support related to legal and liability issues (e.g., background checks), makes presentations to faculty and students, and gives feedback and evaluations. Deb Barrick, Director of the OACS office, can be contacted at Deb Barrick or (260) 481-5471. CELT assists faculty in designing service-learning courses and developing assessment tools, hosts faculty development events, promotes grant opportunities, and supports engaged scholarship. Gail Rathbun, Director of CELT, can be contacted at Gail Rathbun or (260) 481-6504. Both units maintain libraries of resources. For service-learning sites and other resources go to the OACS service-learning page.

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3. How do I locate community partners for my service-learning projects?

OACS maintains a list of over 400 community partners. View the list or contact Deb Barrick at (260) 481-5471 for help in identifying the partner who best matches your course goals. If you have a community partner that you would like to add to the list, please let OACS know. OACS can help you coordinate your students’ service with your partner.

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4. What is the best way to go about developing a service-learning course?

There is no “best way”. You may want to do some reading about service-learning in your discipline by borrowing books from the OACS or CELT Libraries, or reading online resources. OACS and CELT highly recommend that you seek out other faculty within and outside your discipline who are using service-learning in their courses. You can see what presentations given by your colleagues and other service-learning practitioners are available on DVD by visiting the 2010 Fall Teaching Conference page in the Previous Conferences section of our website.

You may contact the OACS office or CELT in order to discuss your ideas, and find ongoing consulting support for your course development. To see guidelines for designing a service-learning course developed by a national leader in service-learning, please go to the Service-learning Designation Faculty Handbook (PDF), available from the Thayne Center web site at Salt Lake City Community College. Course criteria and syllabus guidelines can be found on the OACS web site.

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5. Is funding available for developing service-learning courses?

Yes. There is funding available through Campus Compact. Please go to the the Indiana Campus Compact website to see grants that are available. CELT also offers a Summer Instructional Development grant to support the transformation of existing courses. Adding a service-learning component to a course would constitute a transformational change. For a description and application form (due in March), go to the Grants page on the CELT website.

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6. How does service-learning differ from internships?

Internships provide students with experiences to develop professional skills. Service-learning links service experiences to course learning objectives, while fostering citizenship skills. Like internships, service-learning integrates theory and practice, but service-learning also emphasizes civic responsibility and community awareness. Service-learning experiences can lead to internships. Service-learning provides students with shorter-term community experiences which can help them refine or redirect their goals for longer internships.

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7. Will service-learning take up a lot of my time?

It does take time to set up the logistics of a service-learning class, to respond to the needs of individual students and to work through unanticipated challenges of community partnerships. But there are ways to minimize the impact on your time by working closely with the OACS and CELT.

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8. Does service-learning detract from class time?

You decide how much class time is used. Students can reflect on the experience outside of class through journals, in chat rooms, or in more formal papers. Research, however, indicates that devoting time in class to discussing experiences that emerge from the service will increase student learning and satisfaction with the course. If students’ experiences become a text for the class, participants will integrate what they are learning, make connections to course material and listen to the experiences of others. Service-learning shouldn’t detract from class time because it is integrated into your syllabus and learning outcomes; service-learning is class time.

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9. How do I evaluate students’ performance and learning?

Instructors frequently use traditional evaluation techniques: papers graded on how well students relate their service to specific course concepts, theories and objectives; oral presentations demonstrating critical thinking; exam questions asking students to describe a community application of a particular theory; or final products developed during the service experience illustrating skill proficiency. Input from the community partners students served is also an important assessment tool. It is imperative that you grade students on the academic product of their service—not simply for performing the service itself. Their experience in the community is a means to an end. You grade the end result.

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10. How can involvement in service-learning enhance my case for retention, promotion and tenure?

National conferences and professional academic associations now include sessions on service-learning and the scholarship of engagement. In addition to this, entire professional organizations, conferences and publications are now devoted exclusively to service-learning. Involvement in service-learning can augment and redirect your professional research interests, especially when a strong partnership is created with the community agency. To learn how one teacher used service-learning in his promotion case, you may borrow the 2010 Fall Teaching Conference DVD from the CELT Library and view Mark Malaby's session "The Meaning of Service-learning in the Promotion and Tenure Process."

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11. What legal risks are involved in service-learning?

For a detailed discussion of what to consider and measures to take read Risk Management and Liability in Higher Education Service-Learning on the servicelearning.org web site.

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12. Is service-learning really worth the extra effort?

Students and faculty who participate in service-learning endeavors overwhelmingly agree that it is, indeed, well worth the effort. A Salt Lake Community College American History student remarked, “The school books only tell part of the story.”

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