Service-learning courses require Loyola students to be actively engaged in the work of the community for a minimum of 20 hours/semester. Students can serve on-site at a community organization or work together in teams to complete a project or meet need identified by the community partner. Students' service experiences help them to think critically about course topics, understand the complexity of various social problems, and develop transferable skills and pre-professional experience in a "real world" setting.
All officially designated service-learning courses fulfill the University's Engaged Learning Requirement. For more information on this requirement or to explore other ways to fulfill it, please visit www.LUC.edu/engagedlearning.
Information about service sites for service-learning classes can be found in the "For Students" section of the service-learning website, specifically under "Where Can I Serve?" In many courses, instructors will recommend students to particular agencies whose area of focus is especially appropriate to course materials. If students struggle to find a site after using this resource, they can also contact celts@luc.edu to be connected with a staff member who can help identify appropriate community partners for their academic, personal, and professional goals.
Components of Successful Service-Learning Courses
What does service-learning look like?
Research supports the importance of each of the following components for an effective service-learning course experience. Whether faculty members are cooperating with the Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, & Scholarship or implementing a service-learning course design on their own, they should ensure that each of these elements is present in their course(s).
Preparation: Students must be "set up for success". Preparation includes having clear course objectives that relate directly to the service experience. Students should be prepared for the work they will be doing and the context (community, organization, policy, history) in which they will be doing the work. Students should also be introduced to and understand how the service experience is connected to course content.
Action: CELTS recommends that students spend a minimum of 20-25 hours/semester engaging in the service work required in the course.
Reflection: Learning is accomplished, not simply by doing, but rather by reflecting on what one has done. Reflection requires taking time before, during, and after the service work to think about/write about/process the experience in terms of personal insights, community issues, and the academic objectives of the course.
Evaluation: The first principle of service-learning pedagogy (see below) is that academic credit be given for learning, not simply for completing "service hours." That learning is assessed through students' oral and written reflection on service work and through students' integration of their service experiences into other course assignments, projects, and discussions.
10 Principles of Community-Based/Service-Learning Pedagogy
The following 10 principles should be kept in mind in implementing a service-learning pedagogy in an academic course.
- Academic credit is for learning, not for service
- Do not compromise academic rigor
- Set learning goals for students
- Establish criteria for the selection of community service placements
- Provide educationally sound mechanisms to harvest the community learning
- Provide supports for students to learn how to harvest the community learning
- Minimize the distinction between students' community learning role and the classroom learning role
- Rethink the faculty instructional role
- Be prepared for uncertainty and variation in student learning outcomes
- Maximize the community responsibility orientation of the course
(Jeffrey Howard, Ed. Praxis I: A Faculty Casebook on Community Service Learning. Ann Arbor, MI: Office of Community Service Learning Press, UMI, 1993)
Resources and Supports for Faculty
The Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship serves as a resource for faculty, students and community partners in all aspects of the service-learning experience. CELTS staff and the Service-Learning Program can directly provide the following services/supports:
- Assist faculty with service-learning course development
- Assist faculty with re-design of traditional courses into service-learning courses
- Suggest relevant and appropriate community service sites for service-learning courses
- Facilitate campus/community partnerships with community service organizations
- esent service-learning program and/or potential service sites to service-learning classes
- Support students seeking community service sites with one-on-one advising and data
- Provide ready-to-use service-learning course forms (e.g. learning contract, hours log)
- Coordinate community partner site visits, orientations and trainings
- Facilitate student reflection on service experiences (in-class, “virtual class”, workshops
- Assist faculty with post-course evaluation, analysis, and re-design
- Support faculty service-learning-based engaged/action research and publication
The Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, & Scholarship provides Loyola students (undergraduate and graduate) the opportunity to gain experience through the combination of academics, professional development and community involvement. Click here to see a list of (Below is) a diverse list of community partners for service learning, academic internship, and/or research opportunities for undergraduate students.
