Five basic elements guide faculty in constructing a community learning course:
- Engagement: Does the service component meet a public good? How do you know this? Has the community been consulted? How? How have campus-community boundaries been negotiated and how will they be crossed?
- Partnership: Partnerships should be reciprocal; partners serve as co-educators on relevant community issues.
- Reflection: Is there a mechanism that encourages students to link their service experience to course content and to reflect upon why the service is important?
- Outcomes: Outcomes of a course can be focused on whether the service makes a difference in the civic life of our communities and whether the knowledge, skills, values and motivation have been cultivated to make that difference.
- Assessment: Educational assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs.
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