Course registration

All Community Learning Opportunities for academic credit must be registered with the Office of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement. All required forms must be filled out and submitted to OSLCE through Curriculog before students may participate in community learning opportunities. Submissions fewer than 15 calendar days prior to the start date of the Community Learning Opportunity may not provide adequate time for review and approval. To register, please fill out the 22-23 Course Add Service-Learning Designation in Curriculog.

Service-Learning designation

For a course to be designated as “Service-Learning”, it must meet all the following criteria for service-learning courses, which are based on the IUPUI Taxonomy for Service-Learning Courses (Hahn et al., 2016): 

  1. The academic course establishes the service expectation of 15+ hours of service in the community or a community-based project aligned with the content of the course.  
  2. Reciprocal partnerships and processes shape community activities and course design. 
  3. Community activities enhance academic content, course design, and assignments. 
  4. Civic competencies (e.g., knowledge, skills, disposition, behavior) are well integrated into student learning outcomes. 
  5. Diversity of interactions and dialogue with others across differences occurs regularly in the course. 
  6. Critical reflection is well integrated into student learning. 
  7. Assessment is used for course improvement. 

To receive the service-learning attribute, submit your proposal in Curriculog using 22-23 Course Add Service Learning Designation by:

  • September 1st for Spring courses; and/or
  • February 1st for the Fall course.

Courses without the attribute will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Please use the FAQ section to help guide your process. If you have additional questions, please contact Abbey Grimmer at (775) 784-4846.

Service-leaning course attributes

All service-learning courses should meet and adhere to the following course attributes:

1. Service-Learning is integrated into the course syllabus and related to the course objectives and learning goals.

Clearly explain or demonstrate how service enhances this course and how service relates to the course objectives and learning goals. This may also include course expectations on service requirements (hours, time log, percentage of grade, etc.) for students and how the service experience will be graded. Although service hour requirements will vary for a course, a minimum of 1 hour per week and typically 2-3 hours a week is common, resulting in a range of 15- 20 hrs. of student service for the semester.

Course Components breakdown: The course components should reflect the number of hours of service that students are required to complete. 15 hours of service: Minimum number of service hours required. 

  • Less than 45 hours of service: All three credits should be dedicated to the lecture. 
  • 45–90 hours of service: 1 credit should be dedicated to practicum/internship and 2 credits to lecture
  • 90–135 hours of service: 2 credits should be dedicated to practicum/internship and 1 credit to lecture
  • 135 + hours of service: 3 credits should be dedicated to practicum/internship and 0 credits to lecture

The component breakdown is in compliance with UAM 6,081 Requirement course components.

2. The service placements are both meaningful to the student and related to the course, and the service meets an identified community need or serves the public good.

Clearly explain or demonstrate how the service is meaningfully connected to the course and the community. A key criterion of service-learning, one that distinguishes it from other forms of experiential learning, is that the service experience also meets a community-identified need. Service experiences ought to be designed to benefit the community partner or agency in addressing a community need and not designed strictly for student learning benefits.

3. Critical reflection is a part of the student's service experience and is considered a part of the course.

Clearly explain or demonstrate how critical reflection will be a part of the overall learning experience in your course. Reflection can be conducted in a variety of ways and it can be either formal or informal.  In service-learning, the learning usually occurs during the reflection process where students can then begin to see and understand the service in a larger context of social justice and civic learning, rather than the context of charity (Kendall 1990).

4. Plans for assessment and evaluation are incorporated into the service-learning course.

As a component of the course, and in partnership with OSLCE, service-learning designated courses should provide some aspect of assessment and evaluation of the service experience. Assessment and evaluation will be determined by the course and the service-learning experience but could include, pre/post-tests to gauge student learning and development, evaluation of the service experience and placement, and course evaluations of the service elements. Faculty members are welcome to use OSLCE student pre/post tests and evaluation forms as contained on our webpage or create their own assessments.

The assessment and evaluation are intended to be beneficial for all involved in the service experience. Data may also be provided to the community partner and/or serve for campus assessment regarding impact and tracking. This data also encourages faculty to collect data that can be used for either publications or reporting evaluation measures for tenure and promotion.