Creighton students enrolling in academic service-learning classes brings them out of the classroom and into the community, giving the opportunity to apply classroom curriculum to community-identified priorities.
Academic service-learning is a pedagogy and learning method that provides the community-based experience through which learning and critical reflection can take place integrated into traditional academic coursework. These experiences become an “integrated text” for the course and assist with making learning the subject matter even more dynamic and relevant.
Starting in the summer of 2017, the Office of Academic Service-Learning supports faculty, students, and community partners engaged in academic service-learning.
To count as academic service-learning, students' work in the community must be incorporated into course grading. Professors decide how much weight service-learning will carry in a course. Professors are also often involved in evaluating the quality of students' service-learning performance.
Community partners are often the best judges of performance, and so their perspective must be taken into account. Students completing academic service-learning placements will be evaluated by an agency supervisor at the end of the placement. The evaluation will be sent to the professor for grading purposes. Students participating in academic service-learning projects should be evaluated by community partners and professors. Grading should reflect both quality and quantity.
There are several ways to facilitate service learning experiences. Regardless of model, all service learning courses involve two common elements: 1) Student engagement in a service experience that is responsive to community priorities and aligns with course outcomes; and 2) Structured opportunities for reflection embedded in the course (assignments, discussions, final projects) that help students draw meaning from their community- based experiences and connect them to course content.
There are three general types of Academic service-learning in Creighton classes:
Placement-based service-learning classes require students to offer a set number of direct service hours to a single nonprofit organization as a member of their volunteer team. In placement classes, reflection exercises help students learn from their on-site experiences, which should relate directly to the content of the class.
Project-based service-learning classes engage students in producing a substantial deliverable for one or more nonprofit organizations that function as "clients" for the students. Sometimes, this product is research-oriented (e.g., a resource guide for clients experiencing homelessness or a program evaluation); at other times, the students may develop concrete products for the organization (e.g., a computer skills class for refugee clients or a new playground for youth). In project classes, reflection exercises often challenge students to continually think about what they are learning while practically applying their academic skills to the complexities of real-world clients and situations.
Community Education/Advocacy service-learning classes challenge students to share the knowledge they have gained in their class with others for the sake of advancing community understanding, advocacy on one or more key issues, or community organizing/mobilization (e.g., a sustainability campaign advocating for the City of Omaha to offer glass recycling).
Finding classes with an academic service-learning component is easy:
Now what? There are several things you can do to build upon your academic service-learning (AcSL) experiences: