Service Learning

As defined by the Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning at UTRGV:  

Service learning is a beneficial way to enrich your classes at the university, advance your career, network with professionals, and make an impact in your community. Service learning combines learning goals in a course and service in the community to enhance student growth and common good. 

As part of the service learning process, you investigate an issue through analysis. During your course you acquire content knowledge to raise questions about the issue. During the service time you spend outside of the classroom and in the community, you take action to provide service to a community organization addressing a specific need. After the service is provided, you reflect on the questions you have raised and the experiences that followed. Finally, you demonstrate knowledge gained through your service experience and reflection, sharing it with a public audience! 

Service Learning may be defined as: 

A thoughtfully organized service experience that addresses a need in the community in a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship and integrates a reflective component that relates the service experience to academic course objectives and the student’s learning. (service = learning) 

Service Learning is sometimes confused for volunteer work. Volunteering  focuses more on service than learning. Similarly, service learning is also confused with internships. Internships place emphasis more on the learning than service. Service Learning specifically places emphasis on both service and learning. 

• Volunteerism (service > learning): The performance of formal service to benefit others or one’s community without receiving any external rewards; such programs may or may not involve structured training and reflection. (Source: National Service Learning Clearinghouse www.servicelearning.org) 
• Internship (service < learning): A structured experiential learning opportunity monitored by a practicing professional with learning outcomes related to a student’s academic background and/or career goals. (Source: UTRGV)  

Designation Criteria established by the Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning:  

• Develop service-learning objectives for the service-learning activity and describe how the SL objectives align with course student learning outcomes.  
• Determine the number of hours students will engage in the service-learning activity, minimum of 3 service-learning hours, per course credit hour.  
• Design a service-learning activity that is part of student’s overall grade. 
• Integrate a reflective component in the service-learning assignment.  

• Develop a partnership that is reciprocal in nature and a mutually beneficial relationship between the course, students, and the community agency. 
• Select a community partner or project that addresses a need in the community and connects to your service-learning objectives and student learning outcomes. 
• Develop a plan on how to gather feedback from the community partner.  

Criteria needs to be reflected in the course syllabi. Syllabi needs to be submitted to the Office of Engaged Scholarship and learning office for review, prior to designation.  

An essential component of a service-learning assignment is engaging students in reflection of the experiential learning activities to counter the isolation of the learning experience and assess how the service-learning experience adds value to the course student learning outcomes and student learning. Reflection provides students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the service-learning activities, societal issues and community needs addressed, awareness of the community served, personal attitudes towards community engagement, skills developed and applied, and academic learning.

Examples of service-learning reflection questions:    

Before the SL Experience:  

• What is your understanding about service?  
• Why is it important to engage with your community?  

• Describe a civic engagement experience that you have taken part in in the past.  
• What is your current knowledge about your community’s language, people, culture?  
• What is your current awareness of your community’s needs?  
• What societal issues or social justice issues do you currently see being reflected in your community?  
• What does it mean to be an engaged citizen?  
• What are your perceptions about the community partner/agency that you will be providing service to?  

During the SL Experience:  

• What observations are you making about your community?  
• What need or issue are you addressing at the community agency?  

• What skills have you learned or applied through the formation of relationships at the community agency?  
• What connections are you making between course readings, lectures, discussions, and the service-learning experience?  
• Identify an interaction or experience in the community agency that has made an impact on your service-learning experience?  
• What is the relationship of your service to the "real world?"  
• Identify an area where you feel you could use additional guidance and learning to be more effective. 

• What have you learned about your likes/dislikes and your strengths/areas for improvement as they relate to future career?  

After the SL Experience:  

• What have you contributed to the community agency?  
• What knowledge from the community have you gained through the service-learning experience?  
• What opinions/attitudes have you formed about the societal issue or social justice issue being addressed by the community agency?  
• What course concepts, theories, or readings relate to the service-learning experience?  
• Was there an “aha” moment during the experience that led you to deepen your understanding about yourself or the community?  

• What did you learn about civic responsibility through community engagement?  
• What goals have you set in accordance with what you have learned through your service-learning experience?  
• What challenges did you face as you engaged in the service-learning experience? How did you navigate them?  

Examples of assignments that can promote reflection of service-learning activities:   

 Discussions (structured)  

Classroom discussions are a form of active learning and student engagement activity, it serves as an opportunity for students to be co-creators of their own learning, “make meaning” of what they are learning and be challenged to apply what they are learning. Students can engage in discussions in pairs, small groups, as a large class or outside of class though an online discussion board. Discussions provide a structured space for students to engage in dialogue about their feelings, attitudes, challenges, knowledge, and skills applied or developed in their service-learning experience.  

When creating a structured discussion, it is important that planning is considered as discussion questions are prompted to students. Important aspects for consideration are: What is the goal of the discussion? What is the purpose of the discussion topic? How does the discussion align to the course content for that day and its connection to the experiential learning activity? What are the students’ expectations for the discussion?   

Frequency in engaging in discussion is also relevant as students learn to think critically about their service-learning experience at various points of their service activities and academic learning activities: before, during and after.   

Journal Entries   

When developing a journal entry assignment is it important to think about what the purpose of the journal will be and provide students with clear expectations:  

• Will the journal entry be a place where students record their service-learning experience?  
• Facilitate learning from the service-learning experience?  

• Support understanding of the service-learning experience?  
• Develop critical thinking of the service-learning experience?  
• How does the journal entry on their service-learning experience fit into the bigger picture of the course?  
• Who will read the journal entry?  
• What assessment criteria and standards will exist for students?  

• Is the journal a high stakes or low stakes assignment?  
• What are the specific requirements of the journal entry?  
• What support will students receive to learn about how to “reflect”?  
• Will students be receiving feedback on their journal entry?   
• How often will students be prompted to reflect on their service-learning experience?   

Portfolio  

A portfolio is a high impact practice that enables students to provide a personal expression of their work overtime. Students can use a portfolio to document their efforts, achievements, ideas, self-reflection, and experiences of the service-learning experience (beginning, during, end).  

 Portfolios could include:  

• Writing about the community agency: description, history, mission statement, purpose within the community  

• Site supervisor interview reflection  
• Personal reflection on career interests, skills, goals, and values associated with their civic identity  
• Personal statement addressing the type of need, societal issue addressed through the service-learning experience  
• Learning moments experienced before, during and after the service-learning experience 
• Evidence of the type of work completed at the community agency, such as flyers developed, agency brochures, lesson plans, project fulfilled, photos,   
• Review of course literature, articles, content in relation to the service-learning experience  
• Generating new ideas and solutions for addressing need in the community    
• Self-Assessment on how effectively they met learning and service objectives from the course 

Oral Presentation  

Oral presentations are an opportunity for students to engage in individual or small group work as they work together to accomplish a goal-oriented activity. Oral presentations can help advance student understanding of the service-learning activity and self-regulation of learning by incorporating elements of self-reflection and self-evaluation.  

Showcasing acquired knowledge of service-learning activities through oral presentations can also lead to the improvement of presentation self-efficacy and communication skills.    

Considerations for developing Oral Presentations:  

• Define if students will be completing the oral presentation as an individual or small group  

• Provide questions that students will be prompted to respond to as they develop their oral presentation (refer to examples provided on pre, during and after reflection questions)  
• Discuss how students will be integrating Service Learning Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes into the assignment   
• Determine the minimum or maximum number of slides that students will be expected to fulfill  
• Determine the amount of time that students will be expected to present  
• Discuss who will be the audience (students, Faculty, community members)   

• Describe skills that will be promoted or practiced through the completion of the oral presentation   

As per UTRGV Service-Learning requirements for course designations, a minimum of 3 hours of service learning is required per course credit hour.   

For example, the UNIV 1301 course is a 3-credit hour course therefore, 3 credit hours x 3 hours of service learning per credit hour = a total of 9 hours of service learning that would be recommended.  

Considerations to time spent at the community agency is due to the following:  

• The service-learning experience should have a purpose as careful considerations are made in the integration of this high impact strategy, as it aligns with course outcomes and service-learning objectives.  
• The service-learning experience should be significant and meaningful to provide a quality experience for students, community agency and course outcomes.  

• The service-learning experience should be deliberately organized to meet course needs, student needs, and community needs.  
• The service-learning experience should be able to foster critical reflection of the student’s contribution to the community agency, student’s learning, and its connection to the course outcomes.  
• The service-learning experience should be able to provide real work experience as students are engaging in hands-on learning to meet the needs of the community and course expectations.  
• The service-learning experience should be able to provide a space where students can apply and learn skills that are relevant to their personal growth.  
• The service-learning experience should encourage students to think about their civic responsibility through civic engagement.  
• The service-learning experience should encourage students to increase their understanding of course outcomes though community-based contexts.  
• The service-learning experience should involve the community agency in the service-learning design and implementation.  

Yes. Service Learning is considered a “high impact practice” for its commitment of time and effort in its links to student learning and success. The service-learning experience should be an integrated experience in the course, not an isolated experience.  Time and effort spent on the service-learning experience should be assigned value within the scope of the course. The service-learning experience should overlap with the academic content provided in the classroom as Student Learning Outcomes and Service-Learning Outcomes are met. The service-learning experience should be part of the course overall’s grade and incorporated in the course syllabi.  

 Incorporating Service Learning in the course and course syllabi:  

• Explain the purpose of service-learning activity to the academic content and its connection to Student Learning Outcomes  
• Explain why the service-learning experience brings value to the goals assigned for the course 
• Define the percentage or points assigned to the service-learning activity 

• Provide a grading rubric that sets clear guidelines and demonstrates the integral role that the service-learning activity will play in student learning and evaluation 
• Discuss assignments, expectations, commitment and criteria of the service-learning activity 
• Maintain continuous discussion of the service-learning activity (prior, during, after) 
• Discuss how students will be expected to demonstrate learning through service 
• Provide meaningful feedback to students of deliverables fulfilled 

• Create opportunities for structured reflective assignments that encourage students to “make meaning” of the service-learning activity and assign a grade value  
• Encourage students to connect with peers to share personal experiences  
• Connect class materials and teaching to the service-learning experience  
• Describe how students will be evaluating their own performance or evaluating peer performance, if working in teams  
• Discuss the service-learning process established in the course 

• Incorporate the service-learning experience into the course schedule in the course syllabi  

Further guidelines can be found in the University Syllabi-Service Learning Section template.  

Service-learning benefits to students:  

• Increases academic relevance and understanding of course content.  
• Helps prepare students for civic life.  
• Provides students with an understanding of working together for the benefit of society. 
• Raises awareness of social, political, environmental, health and educational issues in the community 
• Helps students identify the interconnectedness of their life and the lives of others.  
• Linking theory to practice.
• Deepening understanding of course materials.
• Enhancing the sense of civic responsibility through civic engagement.
• Allowing students to explore possible career paths. 
• Stressing the importance of improving the human condition. 
• Developing relevant career-related skills. 
• Providing experience in group work and interpersonal communication. 
• Promoting interaction with people from various backgrounds. 
• Instilling a sense of empowerment that enhances self-esteem. 
• Service-learning methodology bridges theoretical concepts with experiential learning through projects within the larger community.  
• Service learning offers both opportunities and benefits for all involved participants, including students, faculty, community, and the academic institution.  
• Students develop important skills that help them function more effectively in the labor market or in graduate school.   
• Integrating service-learning into a regular classroom stimulates both teaching and learning.  
• Service-learning assignments foster the personal development of students through opportunities to interact with those in need.

Service-learning fosters empathy in students:  

• As students reflect on their service experiences, they often recognize a change in their perspectives, emotional connections, and self-awareness.  

• Students gain perspective they cognitively understand to gain awareness that complex issues have more than one answer and there are many viewpoints in any situation.  
• Students are able to move beyond just the cognitive process of gaining perspective to the emotional connection required for empathy.  
• Students are able to make an emotional connection with the people they serve and develop an interest in helping them.  
• Students who interact with people in need express a new understanding of the people and their needs.  

Students engaging with their local community:  

"The best strategy to advance knowledge and learning is through collaborative, action oriented, and real world problem-solving. " (Harkavy, I., 2006). 

 "Advancing citizenship, social justice and the public good by focusing in solving universal problems that are manifested in your local communities. " (Harkavy, I., 2006). 

• Provides a continues interaction with the community in an accessible location.  
• Ability to build relationships of trust as day-to-day activities are fulfilled with mutual concern.  
• Serves as a convenient setting for producing sustainable results.   
• Provides interdisciplinary learning opportunities.  
• A real-world site in which university students and community members work together.  
• Promotes making a difference in student’s neighborhood. 

Service-Learning benefits communities by: 

• Forming partnerships that foster positive campus-community interactions.
• Providing access to faculty experts and the next generation of experts.
• Identifying, addressing, and solving local problems in effective, creative ways.
• Cultivating future generations of engaged citizens.
• Encouraging multi-generational and cross-cultural interactions.
• Establishing cooperation and collaboration as values within the local culture

Promoting citizenship and advance social justice through community engaged practices  

• Foster a student civic identity through civic responsibility. 
• Focuses on solving universal problems that are manifested in the local community. 

• Provides an opportunity for community-based learning that can lead to sustainable results. 
• Raises awareness of social, political, environmental, health and educational issues in the community. 
• Provides a real-world site where students and community members can work together. 
• Creates a dialogue and trust through community based and social contexts. 
• Provides students an opportunity to examine their own beliefs, reflect on their experience and act. 

• Helps students identify the interconnectedness of their life and the lives of others. 

Community agency perceived benefits  

• The help, enthusiasm, and perspective that students bring to agencies have been commonly cited both as reasons for agency participation. 
• Opportunities to educate students. 
• Enhanced relations with the academic institution 
• Increased agency visibility and networking opportunities. 
• Agencies with greater involvement in planning the partnerships were more likely to view them as beneficial. 
• Intergenerational interaction.  
• Exchange knowledge and skills. 

The Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning through our Service Learning program works towards combining learning goals in a course and service in the community to enhance student growth and common good. As part of service learning the students will investigate an issue through analysis. After the service is provided to the community the students reflect on the questions that are raised through the experiences.  

The Service Learning Experience Survey helps us understand students’ perceived learning experiences, quality of their experience, and how to better serve our SL students, faculty, and community partners. The survey is conducted at the end of the service experience and before the end of the given semester. In the 2022- 2023 academic year there were 1,965 Service Learning students. Undergraduates comprise most SL students with a total of 1,916 undergraduates and 49 graduate students. In the 2022- 2023 academic school year, a total of 17,078 Service Learning hours were tracked by the Office of Engaged Scholarship & Learning in collaboration with SL faculty and community partners via the Engagement Zone platform.

•  Student Voice
• Survey Impact
• Student Testimony

Service-Learning Experience Survey Results 

 In partnership with the Office of Engaged Scholarship and Learning, the “Service-Learning Experience” survey was deployed in Ms. Perez, Lecturer III, Service-Learning Designated UNIV 1301 Learning Framework Courses in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 to assess the impact of service-learning integration.  

These are the highlights from the Fall 2022 Service-Learning Experience Survey Results:  

• Top Skills: Personal Growth (self-esteem, confidence, or responsibility) and Social Development (interpersonal skills, support of diversity and future community participation).  
• 88% of the students strongly agree and agree that participation in the community engagement experience contributed to their personal and professional development (skills and knowledge). 
• 84% of the students strongly agree and agree that they learned new methods of interaction and/or communication after having participated in a Community Engagement Opportunity. 
• 81% of the students strongly agree and agree that they gained and/or improved their leadership skills after having participated in a Community Engagement opportunity. 
• 76% of the students strongly agree and agree that they connected what they learned in class to societal problems or issues.  

These are the highlights from the Spring 2023 Service-Learning Experience Survey Results:  

• Top Skills: Social Responsibility, Self-reflection, and Teamwork. 
• 88% of the students strongly agree and agree that they learned new methods of interaction and/or communication after having participated in the community engagement opportunity. 
• 87% of the students strongly agree and agree that the community engaged experience increased their commitment to serving in their community. 

• 80% of the students strongly agree and agree that they gained a better understanding of their role as a member of the community. 
• 75% of the students strongly agree and agree that they connected what they learned in class to societal problems or issues. 

Strategies for Establishing Mutually Beneficial Service-Learning Partnerships  

• Review your course objectives to determine whether service-learning aligns with your course goals.  
• Do some research on the local community (or community where you plan to serve) to find out what the major issues are in the area (i.e., childhood obesity, homelessness).  
• Review your syllabus while considering the research on community issues to assess the feasibility of your course for addressing those issues. 
• Begin researching community organizations that address the issues you researched to find out what is currently being done in the area.  

• Develop a list of 4-5 potential partners that seem like a good fit with your course objectives and needs.  
• Connect with potential partners via establishing a meeting to discuss opportunities.   

Best practices for establishing a community-based service-learning partnership:  

• Hallmarks of community–academic partnerships include mutual decision making, goal setting, and meeting community needs. This could be fulfilled by early coordination of brainstorming sessions with community partners that identify mutual goals, need for service, purpose of service and project outcomes.  
• Feasibility, access, metrics, and consistency have been identified through a community–academic partnership as the foundation for a framework for reciprocity and measurement of service–learning benefits to those receiving the service. 
• Establishing a service–learning framework provides a structure for reciprocity between student learning, the community being served, and the partnering agencies.  
• Clearly articulate roles and responsibilities of students, faculty, and community agency.    

• Develop of plan for feedback and evaluation of project goals.  

Best practices for soliciting written feedback from community partners:  

• Define outcomes prior to assessment and evaluation of outcomes.  
• Types of written feedback: questionnaires, surveys, interviews, stories, testimonies, reflective journals and documenting of observations. Feedback can be collected from community partners and the constituents who benefited by the community partnership.  
• Open ended questions allowed for insight into the “impact” made and created dispositions for growth of the community partnership by the community partner.  

A survey was conducted to supervisors to explore perceptions on the community service and work habits of students.  

• A timeline was created in coordination with site supervisors for collection of feedback prior to initiation of service project.  
• Students were made aware that site supervisors would be providing feedback of service activities fulfilled at the community agency.  
• Survey was distributed by the course instructor during the 8th week of the service project.  

• Surveys were completed within two weeks and took about 10-12 min to complete.   
• Site supervisors completed student performance evaluations after student grades were submitted.  

Suggestions for improving campus and community service-learning partnerships  

• Campus and communities collaborating on service initiatives need to work in ways that are marked by equality and reciprocity.  
• Campus partners need to pay attention to the perspectives of the recipients of the service to move from a helping frame of mind to viewing service as a means for mutual engagement of social issues.  
• Provide clarity on the time commitment and number of students participating in the service activity to improve communication and collaboration. 
• Open doors to community partners to directly interact with students and Faculty. 

UTRGV Service Learning Course Designation https://www.utrgv.edu/engaged/

How To Designate Your Service Learning Course sl-designation-faculty-resource-packet.pdf (utrgv.edu)