Experiential Learning, Loyola University Chicago

Course Development

Fundamentals of Course Design, Models, and Sample Syllabi

Note: Much of the following material was originally developed for Service-Learning courses and programs. However, many of the principles articulated are helpful for faculty implementing any kind of experiential or community-based component in their course(s).

Fundamentals of Experiential Learning Course Construction

To be truly effective and to minimize the potential for harm, service-learning, internship, and other community-based experiences must be well planned and integrated into the course syllabus with a clear sense of how to structure the experiential component and why this activity is being utilized in this course.

There are four basic principles (with related guiding questions) that should guide faculty in organizing and constructing a course with an experiential learning component:

Engagement: In a service-learning course, does the community component meet a public good? How do you know this? Has the community been consulted? How? In an internship, will the professional experience gained significantly enhance the students' professional development and readiness? How do you know this? Have the students been consulted? In general, how have campus/community boundaries been negotiated and how will they be crossed?

Reflection: Is there a mechanism that encourages students to link their community-based experiences to course content and to reflect upon why the work they have done is important?

Reciprocity: Is reciprocity evident in the community-based component? How? Reciprocity suggests that every individual, organization, and entity involved in the learning process functions as both a teacher and a learner. Participants are perceived as colleagues, not as servers and clients. (Jacoby, 1996 p.36)

Public Dissemination: Are the results of student work (as service learners or interns) presented to the public or made an opportunity for the community to enter into a public dialogue? For example: Do oral histories students collect return to the community in some public form? Is the data students collect on the saturation of toxins in the local river made public? How?

Once faculty have addressed these four principles, they should begin to plan the manner in which the community-based component will be presented in the syllabus. The presentation of the community-based experience in the syllabus can be critical in shaping the educational outcomes for the course. It cannot be presented as a mere sidebar to the course; rather, the syllabus should explain why this kind of assignment is a part of the course and/or departmental requirements.

This requires instructors to think about the explicit connections between their course and departmental objectives; between the university’s mission and the community’s expectations; and, perhaps most importantly, between their goals and their students expectations (Woolcock,1997 p. 10). These connections are further clarified for students in how faculty structure the community-based component in the syllabus.

(Adapted from "The Basics of Course Construction", National Campus Compact website, 2007)

Models of Experiential Learning Courses and Activities

There are a number of different "models" of service- and experiential learning delineated in the literature. Faculty who are developing new experiential learning courses or redesigning old courses to incorporate a community-based experience may find the following typologies, drawn from National Campus Compact and Marquette University's Service-Learning Center, respectively, to be helpful.

From Campus Compact: Six Models of Service-Learning Course Design

(Adapted from National Campus Compact Website, 2007)

While one could argue that there are many models of service-learning, we feel that service-learning courses can basically be described in six categories:

'Pure' Service-Learning

These are courses that send students out into the community to serve. These courses have as their intellectual core the idea of service to communities by students, volunteers, or engaged citizens. They are not typically lodged in any one discipline.

Discipline-Based Service-Learning

In this model, students are expected to have a presence in the community throughout the semester and reflect on their experiences on a regular basis throughout the semester using course content as a basis for their analysis and understanding.

Problem-Based Service-Learning (PBSL)

According to this model, students (or teams of students) relate to the community much as “consultants” working for a “client.” Students work with community members to understand a particular community problem or need. This model presumes that the students will have some knowledge they can draw upon to make recommendations to the community or develop a solution to the problem; architecture students might design a park; business students might develop a web site; or botany students might identify non-native plants and suggest eradication methods.

Capstone Courses

These courses are generally designed for majors and minors in a given discipline and are offered almost exclusively to students in their final year. Capstone courses ask students to draw upon the knowledge they have obtained throughout their course work and combine it with relevant service work in the community. The goal of capstone courses is usually either exploring a new topic or synthesizing students understanding of their discipline. These courses offer an excellent way to help students transition from the world of theory to the world of practice by helping them make professional contacts and gather personal experience.

Service Internships

Like traditional internships, these experiences are more intense than typical service-learning courses, with students working as many as 10 to 20 hours a week in a community setting. As in traditional internships, students are generally charged with producing a body of work that is of value to the community or site. However, unlike traditional internships, service internship have regular and on-going reflective opportunities that help students analyze their new experiences using discipline-based theories. These reflective opportunities can be done with small groups of peers, with one-on-one meetings with faculty advisors, or even electronically with a faculty member providing feedback. Service internships are further distinguished from traditional internships by their focus on reciprocity: the idea that the community and the student benefit equally from the experience.

Undergraduate Community-Based Action Research

A relatively new approach that is gaining popularity, community-based action research is similar to an independent study option for the rare student who is highly experienced in community work. Community-based action research can also be effective with small classes or groups of students. In this model, students work closely with faculty members to learn research methodology while serving as advocates for communities.

From Marquette University: Four Models of Community-Based Activities

There is no single way to “do” service-learning or structure a community-based experience. The following four models of activities offer some examples of how various agency missions, opportunities, and needs might interface with classroom learning objectives. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and should be used as a spur to community partners’, faculty members’ and students’ creativity.

(Adapted from B. Timberlake, et al., 2005)

Placement model: Individual students or groups of students choose from among several placements that have been chosen for their courses or suggested by Center for Experiential Learning staff and work at these sites for a few hours per week throughout the semester, depending on the course requirements and the needs of the service site. The service they provide is the conduit to their learning. They gain access to populations or issues related to their courses and, in return, provide needed assistance to organizations and/or their clientele. For example, students in an Intro to Sociology class might volunteer at a range of area social services agencies and reflect on their experiences in light of in-class discussions of historic and contemporary social problems. Many internships fit within this model: student interns shoulder part of the burden of an organization's regular activities, thus learning "what it's really like" to work in that industry, serve that population, etc.

Presentation model: Students in a course take material they are learning in class and create presentations for audiences in the community, usually young people. The service learners work in small groups and choose from among several sites, which have usually been set up by the course instructor in cooperation with the Center for Experiential Learning staff. Sometimes instructors require students to do their presentations more than once (to give them the chance to evaluate and make adjustments), or have them present in class before going out into the community. For example, students in a medieval studies class might teach a lesson on medieval verse forms to a high school creative writing class.

Product model: In some courses, learners—working alone or in groups—produce a tangible result for their agencies, thus serving as “consultants” in response to agency-defined needs. For example, students in an enviromental studies class might do an environmental audit of an agency’s operations or facilities; interns from a curriculum development certification program might prepare a curriculum for a summer enrichment program sponsored by the local school district; students in a computer science class might develop or modify a database for their agency clients.

Community Project model: Working in groups, service learners collaborate with community members to devise and implement a project. For example, service learners in a political science class might work with groups of middle or high school students to identify and develop an action campaign responding to local community issues affecting their school; art/design student interns might work with the clients of an area community health center to create a more welcoming and “healing” space.

Departmental Guides for creating service learning courses

These documents can be used by professors looking to create a service learning course within thier discipline. Each document gives examples of service learning class structures, an example syllabus, other ideas for service projects, related community organizations, and supplemental resources.

Sample Syllabi From Campus Compact

National Campus Compact maintains a large online collection of sample experiential and service-learning syllabi organized by disciplines. Browsing these is a great way to see various models of community-based learning "in action," and as such can be helpful for stirring the creativity of students, faculty, and community partners. Note that the categorization of sample syllabi is a matter of art, not an exact science; helpful examples may be found listed under multiple more-or-less-related headings.

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Experiential Learning