Developing Service Learning Activities

The following questions are meant to serve as a guide to faculty in modifying a course to include a community-based academic service-learning component (provided by Massachusetts Campus Compact, 12/04, http://ase.tufts.edu/macc/).

1. Overall objectives for the course: What concepts, skills, theories, issues, and information do you seek to convey in this course?

2. What kinds of community-based placements or projects might contribute to achieving those goals? What kind of “service” would such projects provide to the larger community (community partners can help with this)?

3. What course-appropriate “civic engagement” or public-policy issues might lend themselves to the students’ community-based work?

4. What is the best format for the service-learning component (mandatory, elective, fourth/extra credit, short-term, long-term, individual, group)?

5. What strategies might be used to help students prepare for the community-based work?

6. What adjustments might be needed to the course’s traditional workload (e.g. readings, writing assignments, tests or cases) to accommodate and integrate the service-learning component of the course. What kinds of learning can the service work facilitate that are currently being covered in another way or that are currently being assessed in another way?

7. What strategies might you use to help students reflect on their community-based work in the context of course concepts, concerns, and objectives?

8. What course-appropriate strategies might be used to encourage student engagement, especially in the community-based component of the course?

9. What are the important assessment goals related to the community-based work? These might include both academic and civic competencies students should be able to demonstrate and evaluate, as a result of that work.

Last Modified: October 31, 2005