Running head: CASE STUDY #2

Case Study #2: Service-Learning Programs in Higher Education

Loyola University Chicago

Case Study #2

Part 1: Describe
For this assignment, I researched five service-learning programs at three public
universities and two private colleges and universities. I summarized five Service-Learning
Programs with special attention to the location within the institution. I chose programs that had
robust websites and only used the material present on the website. I analyzed and reflected on
five Service Learning Programs below.
1. University of Cincinnati, Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement
http://www.uc.edu/propractice.html
The Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) is housed
within the Division of Professional Practice and Experiential Learning (ProPEL) unit of
the Office of the Provost. ProPEL also houses the Center of Cooperative Education,
Research and Innovation and the Academic Internship Program. CSLCE oversees and
supports service learning pedagogies and will further help to continue the development of
its programs and resources. The center is responsible for helping to guide the
development, implementation, and assessment of interdisciplinary, community-engaged,
and experiential courses. CSLCE in partnership with the Center for Community
Engagement develops collaborative relationships with offices, such as the General
Education Program, the Integrated Core Learning initiative, the First Year Experience
program, the Center for the Enhancement for Teaching and Learning, International
Affairs, the Honors program, and the Action Research Center. The Service Learning
Collabratory are special courses for faculty from a variety of disciplines. They are about
social enterprise and service-learning taught through a variety of constructivist teaching
methods, including group discussions, presentations, collaborative learning, experiential
application, and the flipped-classroom.

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Certificate Program
There is an opportunity to earn a Certificate in Service Learning and Civic Engagement.
Every student pursuing the certificate must take 18 service learning credits including
Foundations of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (3 credits) and the Leadership
through Service Capstone (3 credits). The student must design a community-based
project wherein they demonstrate leadership. Upon completion of the project, students
must articulate their understandings of Leadership and Social Responsibility by
presenting their ePortfolios to a group of CSLCE stakeholders from the campus and
community (website).

2. The University of Georgia, Office of Service-Learning

http://servicelearning.uga.edu/index.php?index
The University of Georgia is a public land-grant university with approximately
36,000 students located in Athens, Georgia. The University of Georgias Office of Service
Learning has a robust service-learning program. There is a primary focus on faculty
development with workshops, presentations and toolkits with resources for faculty to
design service learning courses. The Office of Service-Learning provides support for
developing and implementing service-learning projects and courses. Faculty have the
opportunity to apply for grants to fund their service learning initiatives. Innovative
faculty are recognized with awards and grants for future projects. The Office of Service
Learning sponsors a Service-Learning Fellows Program which is a year-long faculty
development program that provides an opportunity for fellows to integrate servicelearning into their teaching, research, and public service work while becoming
recognized campus leaders in service-learning pedagogy and community engagement.

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The awards and recognition are likely to raise the credibility and importance of service
learning. At least two service learning theory classes for graduate students in a variety of
disciplines are offered. The Office of Service Learning supports faculty in integrating
academic service-learning in First Year Odyssey Seminars which seem comparable to
Loyola University of Chicagos UNIV courses.
International Service learning opportunities are available as well. The website
makes a clear distinction that International Service Learning Programs are not traditional
study abroad programs. The website states, the definition the office uses is a definition
from Bringle and Hatcher (2011) who define international service-learning as: "A
structured academic experience in another country in which students (a) participate in an
organized service activity that addresses identified community needs; (b) learn from
direct interaction and cross-cultural dialogue with others; and (c) reflect on the
experience in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a deeper
appreciation of the host country and the discipline, and an enhanced sense of their own
responsibilities as citizens, locally and globally." During 2013-14 academic year, 182
unique service-learning enhanced courses were taught at UGA, and 377 course sections
with service-learning were offered (website).
3. Purdue University, Experiential Learning programs
http://www.purdue.edu/cie/learning/servicelearning/index.html and
http://www.purdue.edu/engagement/
Purdue University is a large land-grant flagship public university in West
Lafayette, Indiana. The Center for Instructional Learning and the Office of Engagement
oversee the Experiential Learning programs at Purdue University. The Experiential
Learning Programs are divided into four categories; global learning, service learning,
IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation), and enCORE

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interactive theater. The Service Learning category sponsors Community of ServiceLearning Faculty Fellows Program, Service Learning Faculty Grant Program and the
Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement which is an open
access journal with articles about service learning and civic engagement experiences. The
Office of Engagement facilitates the Community Service/Service-Learning Student Grant
Program but it is unclear if the grant goes toward a credit-bearing opportunity.

4. Lasell College, Center for Community-based Learning

http://www.lasell.edu/academics/academic-centers/center-for-community-basedlearning/service-learning.html
Lasell College is a private, non-sectarian, liberal arts college located in Newton,
Massachusetts with approximately 1,800 students enrolled, according to their website.
The Center for Community-based Learning (CCBL) provides support and opportunities
for students, faculty, and staff to engage with community organizations on mutually
beneficial projects. The model is part of Lasells Connected Learning Philosophy.
Courses with a service learning component have a linked credit. A one-credit, LinkedCredit service-learning experience is 'linked' to a three- or four-credit host course. The
student and faculty of the host course co-create the Linked-Credit course. To qualify as a
linked-credit students must apply course learning in a real world setting, perform 15-20
hours of service in an off campus non-profit agency and complete a paper demonstrating
what they learning during their service. The Service-Learning Linked-Credit course will
receive its own grade as long as the student passes the host course.
Lasell College has a Leadership in Civic Engagement Minor. Requirements
include 150 hours of community service and 18 credit hours including a Service-Learning
Internship (2-3 credits). Students can take up to six linked-credits that will count toward

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the minor. Lasell CCBL sponsors Shoulder to Shoulder International Service-Learning

programs around the world. Each of the credit-bearing travel courses consists of
approximately 10 to 12 students and two faculty leaders who engage in academic
coursework in addition to spending time on the ground abroad for 7-14 days (website).

5. Northeastern University, Center for Community Service

http://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/index.html
Northeastern University is a private research university with approximately
20,000 students located in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeasterns Service Learning
program is housed within its Center for Community Service. According to their website,
Northeastern University defines Service-Learning (S-L) as a form of experiential
learning involving partnerships between faculty-led academic courses and communitybased organizations. Through these partnerships students engage in hands-on service
roles and projects by which they learn about and apply course concepts while
intentionally addressing the needs/interests identified by our community partners. The
Service Learning program provides ongoing and one time service opportunities for
students as well as credit bearing service learning courses. The Service Learning program
provides support for faculty. The two primary ways they provide support is with the
Service-Learning Teaching Assistant (S-LTA) Program and facilitating community
partnerships. Faculty members who choose to integrate service-learning into their course
are offered the opportunity to be paired with a Service-Learning Teaching Assistant (SLTA). S-LTAs appear to be undergraduate or graduate students assigned to aid one
particular faculty member with one class. S-LTAs spend approximately 7-14 hours each

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week facilitating community partnerships and co-facilitate reflection activities and

assignments with faculty member.
Part 2: Compare and Contrast
In this section I use comparative analysis, as well as differentiation, and identify themes
and trends from the five Service-Learning Programs above. The themes I discovered across all of
the service-learning programs were collaboration and extensive support for faculty. Common
themes I observed across programs were the attention to faculty development and collaboration.
Collaboration
The service-learning centers I researched work collaboratively with faculty academic
units, students, and other centers. Service learning is not like the traditional learning methods of
lectures, quizzes and final exams. Instructors take on a more fluid role in service-learning
courses and must rethink their roles not as teachers but service-learning teachers (Cress, 2005 &
Howard, 1993). Due to this departure from traditional pedagogy, experiential learning
centers/programs often partner with units like the Center for Instructional Learning (Purdue) and
the Center for the Enhancement for Teaching and Learning (UC) to fulfill a desperate need at
universities and colleges: training instructors on experiential learning pedagogy. UGA takes an
even more forward thinking approach by having service learning theory classes for graduate

students. These courses are for all disciplines, not just education majors. I think this is a
generative step in educating future instructors. If more schools had courses like this, maybe
experiential learning centers would not have to spend so many resources on just familiarizing
instructors that service-learning exist in the future.
A different type of collaboration between faculty and students that I did not find in any
other program was at Northeastern. Northeastern has a unique program utilizing Service-

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Learning Teaching Assistants (S-LTAs). S-LTAs are trained in service learning pedagogy and act
as project managers assisting faculty members to implement the best practices of S-L in their
course. They are paid a stipend and do not get academic credit. Faculty meet regularly with the
S-LTA to provide direction, support, feedback, and mentorship. The S-LTA helps facilitate
reflection activities in the service learning class.
Support and Recognition of Faculty
In Howards Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning Pedagogy, principle 8
maintains rethinking the faculty instructional role. All of the programs researched have taken at
least partial responsibility of supporting faculty and educating faculty on effective SL pedagogies
and activities. The main ways the five universities do this is with teaching fellowships, SL grants,
and recognition. For example, the University of Cincinnati has a Service Learning and Civic
Engagement Fellowship program and faculty have access to the Greater Cincinnati Regional
Service Learning Network (Project Hope) which connects SL faculty from several universities
and colleges in the Greater Cincinnati Region. Purdue and Georgia have a Service-Learning
Faculty Fellows Program too. Purdue offers a Service Learning Faculty Grant Program and a
Community Service/Service-Learning Student Grant Program.
Part 3: Integrate
"Service-learning" has been used to characterize a wide array of experiential education
endeavors (Furco, 1996). I focused on programs/centers that specifically had service-learning in
the title and each center was on the experiential education continuum (Furco, 1996). Structurally,
all of the service-learning programs are incubated within larger experiential learning offices.
Only at the University of Georgia service-learning has its own office.

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In this section I will analyze the structure and the implementation of Lasell Colleges
service-learning program using key principles from Howards Principles of Good Practice for
Service-Learning Pedagogy.
Lasell Colleges Linked-Credit Design
Lasell College was the only program to have a linked-credit design. Although it was
not particularly clear to me from the website, it seemed a student could make almost any course
have a linked-credit component. In order to qualify as a linked-credit, students must apply
course material in a real world setting, perform 15-20 hours of service in an off campus nonprofit agency and complete a paper demonstrating what they learned during their service. The
Service-Learning Linked-Credit course receive a separate grade from the course (A through F)
grade as long as the student passes the host course. From this model, the linked-credit program is
more like a field education program according to Furcos experiential education continuum.
Through Furcos lens, it is problematic to call the linked-credit design service-learning
because the design is not integrated into the course (its more of an add-on credit) and it breaks
key principles according to Howards principles. I did not like this service learning model
because it violated Howards key principles. First, the design disregarded principle 1, academic
credit should be for learning, not service. It seemed like the student just needed to find any old

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site and complete 15-20 hours of community service. The paper (of an unknown length) feels
like an afterthought. Furthermore, the paper only needs to communicate to the instructor what the
student did at surface level. The program could be improved by a vigorous reflection in written
form and verbal reflection with the instructor. Secondly, the design disregarded foundational
service learning principle 3, establish learning objectives. There is no deliberate planning of
course academic or civic learning objectives. However, with the link to academic credit, I would
label this design a Field Education program. Field education programs provide students with cocurricular service opportunities that are related, but not fully integrated, with their formal
academic studies (Furco, 1996). Mainly because of the lack of integration and lack of
intentionality of reflection, I would classify the linked-credit design as field education.

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References

Cress, C (2005). Learning through Serving.

Furco, A. (1996). "Service-Learning: A Balanced Approach to Experiential Education."
Expanding Boundaries: Service and Learning. Washington DC: Corporation for National
Service, 1996. 2-6.
Howards Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning Pedagogy.