Service Learning Resources for Faculty
The Office of Service Learning and Community Action assists faculty in the integration of community-based components into the curriculum. This collaboration includes identifying community partnerships and sources of funding, documenting students’ service work, providing resources and guidance for developing service learning syllabi and course assignments, coordinating guest lectures and class excursions, and assessing the impact of service learning for the community members and the students.
Conceptualizing and Developing Service Learning Assignments
The Associate Director of Service Learning and Community Action can meet with faculty to collaboratively develop strategies for incorporating service learning into a course. Our office houses a number of resources for faculty, such as sample reflection assignments, service learning course design workbooks, and sample syllabi from different disciplines. Sample syllabi and reflection resources can also be found on the National Campus Compact website
The Office of Service Learning also holds periodic Faculty Roundtables for both Seed Grant Recipients and faculty who are interested in Service Learning. Contact jennifer_greer@emerson.edu for more information.
Also see our Service Learning Planner and our Hallmarks of Best Practices of Service Learning for more information on planning your service learning course.
Identifying and contacting community partners
The Office of Service Learning and Community Action houses a wealth of resources and information about local non-profit and community-based organizations. Representatives from the SLCA Office can research potential partnership organizations, make presentations to classes about relevant community opportunities, and coordinate planning meetings.
Our online Volunteer Opportunity Databank is an additional resource our office provides as a way to search for meaningful and educational opportunities for community engagement.You can also sign up for our e-newsletter for regular updates on local community needs. Email Heather_Flynn@emerson.edu to sign up.
Providing Seed Grants and assistance identifying and securing funding
The Office of SLCA recognizes that teaching a service learning class involves a unique kind of course preparation that demands extra work, particularly in the early iterations of the service learning course, just as selecting a different text from what you’ve used in the past requires extra work. As such, we offer faculty Service Learning Seed Grants to address the additional costs associated with these projects.
In addition to the Seed Grants, through our connections to Massachusetts Campus Compact, National Campus Compact, and other organizations, we can help faculty identify external sources of funding for service learning and community-based learning initiatives, and can write letters of support for such grants.
Documenting students' service and assessing impact
The Office of Service Learning and Community Action works to document and assess service learning work and its impact on both the students and the community. We manage students’ service learning agreements (LINK to forms page which includes 2005 Service Learning Agreement), which are much like internship contracts in that they clarify responsibilities and expectations of both the student and the community partner. These agreements also ask students to articulate academic, community, and personal learning objectives, in an effort to make sure students are thinking about their service learning project as an academic, civic, and personal learning opportunity.
The Office of SLCA also manages evaluations of students and students’ evaluations of their service learning placement site, and we can create assessment tools to meet the unique concerns that you may have about the course or project. These agreements and evaluations are excellent tools for tracking student progress and compiling data for assessment. However, we ask that faculty hold students accountable (as part of course expectations) for the timely submission of service learning agreements, and we also ask that class time be made available for us to administer evaluations of the community partner.
See our Forms page for service learning contracts and evaluations.
Coordinating guest lectures and class excursions
The Associate Director of Service Learning and Community Action has a number of contacts with local non-profit organizations, and these contacts are rich resources for class speakers on course topics. The Office of SLCA can also assist in coordinating class excursions to non-profit organizations’ offices or to neighborhoods that have been improved through community-based efforts and grass-roots organizing.
Reflection
A key element of service learning is reflection: discussions and written assignments (both traditional and web-based) for students to further analyze their experience in the community both in relation to course concepts and in the context of larger social and political issues. The Office of Service Learning has a number of resources on reflection, including books and articles, sample assignments, and a reflection toolkit with a wealth of activities. Additionally, our student leaders coordinate reflection discussions that students can participate in to further deepen their analysis of their experience in conversation with other students.
Service learning and professional development
It may be difficult to justify the additional time it takes to create a service learning course given the expectations faculty have in other areas of their professional work. The Office of Service Learning recognizes this and works to support faculty and ensure that service learning supports faculty professional development and career advancement. Grant and fellowship opportunities, publishing and conference opportunities, and many other awards and initiatives exist to support faculty doing work in this emerging and growing field. Our office has information and resources about these opportunities, and we are happy to support faculty in a variety of ways in order to support and advance their work and ensure their career success.
More resources for faculty
Service Learning Library Resources
Previous Service Learning Courses
