The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) defines Service-Learning as “field-based experiential learning with community partners is an instructional strategy—and often a required part of the course. The idea is to give students direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyze and solve problems in the community. A key element in these programs is the opportunity students have to both apply what they are learning in real-world settings and reflect in a classroom setting on their service experiences. These programs model the idea that giving something back to the community is an important college outcome, and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work, and life.”
UCF defines service-learning as “a teaching method that uses community involvement to apply theories or skills being taught in a course. Service-Learning furthers the learning objectives of the academic course, addresses community needs, and requires students to reflect on their activity in order to gain an appreciation for the relationship between civics and academics.”
Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that supports UCF’s commitment to harness the power of its scale to transform lives and livelihoods. It does this by integrating meaningful community service with instruction and reflection.
Service-learning is reciprocal and balances student learning with community needs. Faculty and community partners establish the learning objectives that address social and community needs. A service-learning course blends hands-on community involvement with course materials such as lectures, readings, discussions, and reflection activities.
Students who participate in service-learning acquire a deeper understanding of course content, develop a broader appreciation of the discipline, and gain enhanced sense of civic responsibility. Service-Learning three core elements:
Although many courses include aspects of service-learning, to be designated an SL course, service-learning must be central rather than peripheral to the course content and structure.
Criteria
The basic criteria for designating an existing course as a service-learning (S-L) course at UCF are that it:
To be designated as a service-learning course, the service-learning activities must be with nonprofit organizations or governmental agencies, including public schools, the philanthropic arm of a for-profit organization, or other initiatives approved by the High Impact Practice Committee.
All students in the course must be required to engage in service-learning experiences. The experiences may not be simply co-op, internship, clinical, practicum and other activities designed to purely meet student learning needs. These experiences, while integral to the student’s learning, do not generally meet the service-learning requirements.
Procedure to Submit
The HIP Courses Designations (Integrative-Learning Experience, Research Intensive, Service-Learning, and Global Learning) can all be obtained at either the instructor or course level. Course sequences may also be considered for IE course designations; please contact OEL@ucf.edu to discuss options.
This type of designation follows the instructor who has submitted their course section for designation. If there are multiple faculty members teaching this course, only the faculty member’s course with an instructor-level designation will have the Serivce-Learning Experience course attribute.
Departments may submit courses to be designated at the course level. This means that all instructors for the course, whether there is one or multiple instructors, will teach the course in accordance with the Service-Learning Experience designation requirements.
Course-level designation means that all sections have common learning outcomes, final outcomes, and similar assessment practices that meet all required components of the SL Rubric.
If there are multiple instructors, but everyone uses the same syllabus, then only that syllabus needs to be submitted. If the content varies, sample syllabi must be submitted as one PDF.
Example: If a leadership course contains the same learning outcomes and end-of-term deliverable (e.g. digital story or poster presentation), but each instructor teaches those outcomes using a variety of strategies and formative assessments, sample syllabi are needed.
To request a course-level designation, select this option on your submission form, which will populate a Course-Level SL MOU to be routed to your department chair to sign.
The following statement was created as a tool for faculty members to use when writing a syllabus for a service-learning course. Inserting it, however, does not automatically create a service-learning syllabus. It should be modified to meet individual course content and objectives (bracketed sections in [bold] are areas that are typically adjusted to apply to individual course needs).
Service-Learning Statement:
This section of [ABC 1234] is a UCF sanctioned service-learning class. Students will spend at least fifteen hours over the course of the semester on a service-learning activity. This activity will address a need in our community, support our course objectives, involve a connection between the campus and the world around it, challenge students to be civically engaged, and involve structured student reflection. Students will spend time reflecting on the service-learning experience through [class conversations, WebCT discussions, and field journal entries]. While there is a 15-hour minimum volunteer component to pass the course, the service-learning efforts will be the core of much of the learning in the course. Therefore, the “grade” for service-learning will come from the tangible class-related projects that come out of it rather than simply from completion of the hour minimum.
The service-learning work in this course will involve volunteering as well as a [paper, presentation, poster, creative project, etc.]. This will allow students to work with a real-world audience and will ensure that the significant time put into the class project leads to meaningful results. [I can offer some suggestions for possible organization groups that students may choose to work with, and I will invite students to suggest other options.] I must approve all projects, and each project will begin with a signed agreement among the students, the agency contact person, and me. If any student has a valid objection to a proposed service-learning project or placement, he or she must let me know during the first week of class or before the drop/add deadline so we can discuss options. If students have any questions about this designation or HIP designations at UCF, please contact HIP@UCF.edu .
This showcase is for projects connected with HIP-designated courses only.
Held during the fall and spring semesters, the Amy Zeh HIP Student Showcase celebrates students who have completed projects as a part of their HIP-designated courses. Students can participate in person or online. More information about applying and submitting can be found on the Amy Zeh HIP Student Showcase page.
For questions or to schedule a one-on-one appointment to discuss your course and the SL application, email OEL@ucf.edu.