Covering student outcomes, research, tracking and forms, explore the page below for the resources you need to offer meaningful, experiential learning in the classroom.
Resources for Faculty/Advisors
Service-learning online
From grant writing to research, program development to creating education material. Explore the ways service-learning can be done from any environment.
Methods of service-learning
Direct Service-Learning: Students have face-to-face contact with the service recipients.
Indirect Service-Learning: Students perform a service without having face-to-face contact with the recipient. Usually resources are channeled to help alleviate a problem.
Advocacy-based Service-Learning: Students educate others about a particular problem or issue with the goal being to eliminate the cause of a particular problem or issue.
Research-based Service-Learning: Students conduct research about a particular problem or issue with the goal being to eliminate the cause of a particular problem or issues.
Alternative service-learning examples
Explore these methods for implementing service-learning for students who may not be able to participate on site in the community.
| Method Step | Indirect Service-Learning | Advocacy-based Service-Learning | Research-based Service-Learning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Identify the problem/issue that you are currently working to address (Example: Access to healthcare; Environmental Issues in communities; Child Abuse and Neglect; Citizen Engagement in Communities; Hunger, Homelessness, Pollution in the water due to incorrect disposal of medications; lack of cultural knowledge and language for first responders; etc., etc.) | Work with your assigned community learning site partner to develop an advocacy campaign to address a topic important to that partner (Examples: Healthy Eating; Stop Smoking; Drunk Driving; Clean Water) | Conduct research about a topic or problem/issue (Examples: Vision Deficiencies and Congestive Heart Failure – Is there a relationship or correlation?; Healthy Eating and Vision Deficiencies; Stroke Victims and Vision Deficiencies; Addressing how Medications are Disposed of – the Impact on Clean Water; etc., etc.) |
| Step 2 | Review current literature on the issue in your community (Reading the Community Focus Report is a great place to start) | Creating Educational Material to be used for Classroom Learning (lesson plans; activities; etc.) | Conduct research to map areas of food insecurity, or drugs, or crimes, or lack of educational facilities, or afterschool programs, etc., for a community |
| Step 3 | Identify at least two articles that discuss the issue or problem in a community that you have identified | Writing a Grant or looking for/identifying potential grants for an organization/community learning site partner | Impact of vision deficiencies on learning |
| Step 4 | Critically think about how you would work to address this problem in a community | Writing a business plan for a new program | |
| Step 5 | Write a plan that discusses elements 1-4 and submit in a report form fashion that can be provided to your community learning-site partner | Developing a new program |
GEP
Jump into community engagement as a First-Year Bear! GEP 101 students and instructors serve alongside the Springfield community.
Introductory
Introduction to Service-Learning courses engage students in 4 hours of service related to their course and/or the Public Affairs mission.
Integrated
Service-learning is embedded into a course and all students participate, providing a minimum of 15 hours of service related to coursework.
Component
Students have the option to earn an additional hour of academic credit by providing 40 hours of service with a nonprofit, government, or public benefit agency. Similar to a mini-internship.