Getting Started

Course Objectives
Course objectives are general statements about overarching aims and what learners are expected to achieve. Their roles are to:

• Reflect major course goals and disciplinary expectations.
• Serve as a road map for assessments and content planning.
• Guide the development of more specific module or lesson-level learning objectives

Course objectives provide a framework for campus-community partnerships, describing what you and partners expect students to know at the end of their service experience. When writing these objectives, you should consider:

• Why do you want to add a service learning component to this class?
• What specific skills and knowledge do you wish your students to obtain?
• What course objectives do you wish to deepen or broaden by adding as service learning component?
• How will adding a service learning component strengthen or deepen those course objectives?

Syllabus
A course syllabus should communicate service learning expectations and requirements to students. We recommend adding the following components:

• Definition of service learning: Students come to service learning with different levels of awareness and experience. It is best to offer a definition of service learning, so students know how it differs from volunteering and other forms of engagement.
  
  
• Rationale: Students benefit from knowing why you have added service learning as a course requirement and how course learning objectives connect to service activities.
  
  
• Logistics: Your syllabus should clarify roles, responsibilities, and logistics, so students know what to expect and can plan accordingly. Consider including community partners’ names and contact information, brief project descriptions, and any known details or schedules of student activities.
  
  
• Purpose of reflection: You should define reflection and clarify its purpose, so students view it as a critical part of the learning process and a graded course requirement. Otherwise, students may view reflection as an optional activity a rather than a rigorous academic exercise.
  
  
• Student assessment: Students benefit from knowing how their service learning experience will be graded. You might also indicate whether community partners will evaluate students’ participation.

Consider sharing a copy of your finished syllabus with the community partner, so they have clarity about the course and its requirements!

Resources

• Michigan State Service-Learning Course Development Worksheet
• CITL Guide on Writing Effective Course Objectives
• Campus Compact Syllabi Library
• PRELOAD: A Rubric to Evaluate Course Syllabi for Quality Indicators of Community Engagement and Service-Learning Components

Instructors should consider safety, logistics, and risk management when designing a service learning experience.

Background checks
Many organizations—especially those that serve minors and vulnerable populations—require criminal background checks for volunteers. Faculty should discuss the possibility of background checks with their community partners early in the course planning process and confirm who will be responsible for paying for any costs related to the background checks. Faculty should also set firm deadlines for students to complete these checks, so the background check process does not delay student engagement.

Transportation
Faculty should consider transportation options, logistics, and costs when planning service learning experiences. Many students do not have cars and are reliant on walking and public transportation. Faculty can refer students to the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus schedule for local placements. Some faculty reserve a University of Illinois System Passenger Vehicle and organize carpools for service sites that fall outside the CU-MTD service area.

Access and inclusion
Students and community partners must be able to participate in and benefit fully from community engagement. The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning and Disabilities Resources and Educational Services offer guidance on reasonable accommodations and accessibility checklists. The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Access, Civil Rights, and Community also offers help with accommodations and supportive measures.

Risk management
Faculty should take student safety and site-specific risks into account. To lower the risk of harm:

• Familiarize yourself with the policies, resources, and tools of the University Office of Enterprise Risk Management. Some colleges and departments have additional policies and requirements.
• Establish a summary of expectations or partnership agreement.
• Confirm that students will have direct supervision during their service work.
• Talk to students and community partners on how to identify, avoid, and handle site-specific risks.

Resources

• We CU Summary of Expectations template
• Sample Partnership Agreement

Centering community-identified priorities
Quality service learning experiences depend on strong campus-community partnerships premised on reciprocity. Centering community-identified priorities creates a strong foundation for long-term engagement and ensures that partnerships extend beyond a single semester or academic year.

When establishing partnerships, you should:

• Research potential partners’ missions, histories, and values, and consider the impact of past university engagement. Learning more about an organization and its past university partnerships—both successes and failures—will help you build mutual trust.
  
  
• Meet with potential partners early and, if possible, include them in the planning of your course objectives, goals, and outcomes. This approach ensures that students view community partners as co-educators whose expertise and authority is co-equal with your own.
  
  
• Consider the time, resources, and commitment needed from community partners when planning your course. Community organizations’ calendars often differ from the university’s academic calendar. It’s important to set clear expectations about important deadlines and activities.
  
  
• Discuss protocols and expectations for communicating and sharing information. You should also build in regular check-in meetings to discuss the partnership and evaluate students’ progress. Maintaining regular communication helps partners understand the course and ensures that everyone’s expectations are met.  

Ethics and equity
Without care, service learning can inadvertently promote saviorism, exploit the labor of communities of color, reinforce simplistic understandings of complex social problems, ignore community assets, and divert critical time and resources away from community organizations.

Ethical community engagement requires a commitment to the constant learning and unlearning of behaviors that have previously harmed marginalized communities. When approaching an organization about a potential partnership, you should be ready to discuss university and community assets and ways each could contribute to a partnership. You should also discuss ways to best support your students, so they enter their service placements with a firm grasp of the concepts of power and privilege. 

 Resources

• Give-Get Grid for Evaluating Partnerships
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis chart
• We CU Anti-Racism Faculty Resource Guide

• Kathleen S. Yep and Tania D. Mitchell, “Decolonizing Community Engagement: Reimagining Service Learning through an Ethnic Studies Lens,” in The Cambridge Handbook for Service Learning and Community Engagement, 2017.
• Principles for Anti-Racist Community Engagement
• Cynthia Lin, Charity Schmidt, Elizabeth Tryon and Randy Stoecker, “Service learning in Context: The Challenge of Diversity. In The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning, pp. 116-135, Temple University Press, 2009.
• David D. Blouin and Evelyn M.  Perry, “Whom Does Service Learning Really Serve? Community-Based Organizations' Perspectives on Service Learning,” Teaching Sociology, vol. 37, no. 2 (Apr 2009): 120-135.
• Shannon B. Rinaldo, Donna F. Davis, and Josh Borunda, “Delivering Value to Community Partners in Service-Learning Projects,” Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, vol. 8, no. 1 (2015): 115-124.
• Joanna D. Geller, Natalie Zuckerman, and Adam Seidel, “Service-Learning as a Catalyst for Community Development: How Do Community Partners Benefit from Service-Learning?” Education and Urban Society, vol. 48, no 2 (2014): 151-175.