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CBL Overview
CBL Benefits
CBL Requirements
8 CBL Criteria

What is Community-Based Learning?

Community-Based Learning (CBL) (also known as service-learning) at American University is an academic, course-based pedagogy that extends and deepens classroom-based learning through meaningful involvement with a community agency, nonprofit organization, or school.

Through a planned collaboration between the professor/class and community partners, all stakeholders benefit from the CBL experience, both by meeting course objectives and addressing community-identified goals and needs. During the course of the semester, students critically process and reflect on their experiences to heighten their engagement with central academic themes, bridge theory and practice, and contribute to clarification of their own personal values, career goals, and sense of social responsibility. Student-produced CBL service, projects, or research contribute positively to the community or organization.

CB is Designed with Faculty in Mind

CB Courses provide numerous benefits to faculty. In addition to increased involvement within the DC community, CB can help faculty create a more engaging learning environment to foster student involvement in course material and the classroom experience. Faculty are provided continuous support by CCES to ensure that the semester goes smoothly. The Center can facilitate connections between faculty and Community Partners with needs relevant to course themes and provide micro-grants for enriching classroom learning (guest speakers to campus, posters, Final Presentation materials, etc.). CCES will also check in throughout the semester to address faculty and Community Partner feedback/concerns.

CB Course requirements are developed by your peers. The CB Faculty Advisory Committee is made up of a series of faculty across AU with CB experience. Currently serving on the Committee are the following faculty: Jane Palmer (SPA), Lewis Faulk (SPA), Amanda Choutka (CAS), Ludy Grandas (CAS), Jolynn Gardner (CAS), Melissa Hawkins (CAS), Noemi Enchautegui (CAS), Ocheze Joseph (SOE), Garrett Graddy-Lovelace (SIS), Gemma Puglisi (SOC), Larry Engel (SOC), Meredith Burnett (Kogod), Caron Martinez (Kogod), Caroline Bruckner (Kogod), and Olivia Ivey (Library).

Expectations for Faculty

CB Courses are designed to be as accessible as possible. However, there a few expectations CCES has for faculty. 

  • Attend Orientation
  • Share Syllabus
  • Complete 3 surveys throughout the semester (a total time commitment of 15 minutes)
  • Class meets 8 criteria
  • Class creates a final presentation detailing their work throughout the semester
  • Class logs all hours serving a Community Partner on GivePulse
  • SET questions around students' CBL experience are included on evaluation

Expectations for CCES

The following is a list of expectations CB Faculty can have for the CBLR team.

  • Responsive to needs/requests
  • Willing to receive feedback
  • Support finding Community Partners
  • Support using GivePulse
  • Staff attendance at class's final presentation
  • Can nominate for grants/awards

The 8 CBL Criteria

The following eight criteria must be met in order for a course to receive the Community-Based Learning (CBL) designation at American University.

The entire class is involved in community-based learning; it is integral to course learning goals as indicated on the syllabus and course content informs and enhances the service-learning that occurs.

Sample Learning Outcomes

  • Students will connect their research in the classroom, the library, and writing process to practical experiences in the greater Washington, D.C. community. (LIT 101: College Writing, Professor Amanda Choutka)
  • Gain knowledge of useful frameworks and relevant theories for approaching community-based learning with an understanding of inequality, social troubles, and said institutions, across a wide range of contexts. (SOC 150: Global Sociology, Dr. Salvador Vidal-Ortiz)
  • Develop professional projects, interventions, initiatives, communications, measurements, reports, or other material to meet the needs of community partners and, if appropriate, their clients. (PUB 480: Public Health Capstone, Dr. Jolynn Gardner)
  • Students will learn how to manage relationships and build rapport with nonprofit staff and the people they serve. (ANTH 544/COMM 528: Community Documentary, Professor Nina Shapiro-Perl)
  • By the end of the semester students will be able to engage in community service and critical reflection in order to gain a deeper understanding of issues related to poverty, diversity and civic engagement. (SIS 140: Cross-Cultural Communications, Professor Easten Law).

Reciprocity is a key characteristic of the service-learning partnership. The community partnership/s meets community or organizational needs and the learning needs of students.

Timeline for Partnership Development

Prior to the Start of the Semester

8 weeks- Faculty and Partners reach out to the CCES office for assistance in developing a partnership. Faculty and Community Partners explore different options.

4 weeks- Faculty and Partners complete MOU formalizing the partnership.  

2 weeks- Faculty and Partners finalize details and prepare for students. 

During the Semester 

Week 1- Students connect with community partners and prepare for service.  

Week 3- By this point, students have entered community or begun work on their culminating CBL project.

Ongoing- Students, faculty, and community partners are critically reflecting on the experience and learning from each other.  

Week 8- Faculty and community partner review the MOU to ensure goals are being met. 

Week 14- Students final CBL projects are due. This gives time for reflection and changes to be made if necessary for the community partner. 

Week 15- Students complete SETs, faculty e-mails community partner evaluation tool. Faculty can use community partner feedback to inform evaluations of students.

After the semester concludes

Faculty and community partners follow up and evaluate the experience. 

Faculty send CCES data on partnering agencies and culminating outcomes/impact.

A minimum of 20 hours of service per semester is expected of CBL students or a comparable project or product if that better suits the course.

Hour Tracking

Hours are tracked through a volunteer management tool called GivePulse. CCES will help faculty integrate GivePulse into their Canvas page at the beginning of each semester.

Project-Based Courses

Other courses are project-based. While these students are encouraged to engage with the community directly, they are not expected to spend 20 hours in direct service with the community. 

These students are assigned a project that capitalizes on their classroom education and produces a product that meets an organizational need. 

  • Visual Literacy Courses partner with community agencies to develop visual products such as:

    • Websites

    • Posters

    • Brochures

  • Public Relations Portfolio courses contribute PR skills to nonprofits through:

    • Social Media guides

    • Videos

  • Nonprofit Financial Management courses review organization's financials and make helpful recommendations around:

    • Grants

    • Potential donors

    • Cost saving measures

Faculty will prepare students for community entry and responsible participation and communication with community partner staff through academic readings and conversation.

Background Knowledge

It is important to ensure that students are informed about the partnering agency, regional issues, political climate, and community culture prior to entering into service. 

Methods of Preparation Include: 

  • Students watch films about the nonprofit partner (check out AU's Community Voice Project)
  • Students read and reflect on local news sources
  • Students utilize DC Neighborhood Walking Tours produced by Cultural Tourism DC
  • Students conduct a community mapping project
  • Bring a speaker to class to offer background on the neighborhood or organization or issue area.

Personal Preparation

All of us carry our own backgrounds and experiences with us. These experiences influence how we interact with and perceive others, they can include biases and prejudices. It is important that our acknowledge and own this background. 

Methods of Preparation Include: 

  • Assign readings that challenge student perspectives of themselves
  • Assign readings that challenge student perspectives of service and helping
  • Facilitate activities to assist students in understanding their own identity, privilege, and culture, to prepare them for working with others of diverse backgrounds

Practical Preparation

It is also essential that students have a basic logistical questions answered and are practically prepared for service. 

Items to Review:

  • Dates and times of service
  • Location of service
  • Transportation plan and time necessary for travel
  • Dress code
  • Point of contact
  • Safety tips

Activities and assignments in the class provide a method or means for students to critically reflect on what they are learning through their community experience. These activities can take multiple forms, including group discussions, online reflective questions, journals, and participatory activities.

Reflection Guide

Follow the link to this helpful guide with resources on: 

  • Reflection activities
  • Reflective writing prompts
  • Facilitating reflection
The Reflection Guide

The Four C's of Reflection

There are four principles to effective critical reflection. It must be Continuous, Connected, Challenging, and Contextualized.

 
  1. Continuous reflection ensures that reflection, as well as community involvement, are ongoing components in the learners education. Often short-term experiences can lead to more complex long-term involvement which gives the student extensive material for observation, reflection, and experimentation. Continuous Reflection also means that reflection should be utilized before, during, and after an experience.
  2. Connected reflection helps students link the "service" they are doing with community organizations to the structured "learning" they are working through in the classroom. Without structured reflection, "students may fail to bridge the gap between the concrete service experience and the abstract issues discussed in class;students may become frustrated and wonder why they are involved in the community as part of their course work."
  3. Challenging reflection poses new, sometimes uncomfortable questions and ideas to the learner to encourage growth. During this type of reflection it is especially important for students to feel they are in a safe and mutually respectful atmosphere where they can freely express their opinions, ideas and thoughts.
  4. Contextualized reflection ensures that the reflection activities or topics are appropriate and meaningful in relation to the experiences of the students. For example, should the reflection be more formal or informal? Or should it occur in proximity to the community the students will be working with?
Taken from Eyler, Janet & Giles, Dwight (1996) A Practitioners Guide to Reflection in Service Learning Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

Readings to Prompt Critical Reflection

Eby, J. (1998). Why Service Learning is Bad.

Davis, A. (2006). What we Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Service. The Civically Engaged Reader.

Strom, S. (2010). Does Service learning Really Help? The New York Times.

Tatum, B. The Complexity of Identity: "Who Am I?"

Academic credit is given for the completion of required academic assignments, not for service alone. 

 

Grading Rubrics

As with any other course assignment, it is important to set standards for assessing community-based learning work. 

Assignments

Research indicates that students of community-based learning demonstrate higher grades in comprehension and critical analysis of course concepts. This make sense as students are regularly reflecting upon the connections between their classroom education and service. 

Follow the arrow for a sample community-based learning paper or final exam prompt based in Blooms Taxonomy.

Bloom-based Paper Prompt

Background

"Academic Credit is for Learning, Not for Service"

According to Jeffrey Howard (1993), this is the first principle of good practice for service-learning pedagogy.

Howard states: "In traditional courses, academic credit and grades are assigned based on students' demonstration of academic learning as measured by the instructor. It is no different in service-learning courses. While in traditional courses we assess students' learning from traditional course resources, e.g., textbooks, class discussions, library research, etc., in service learning courses we evaluate students' learning from traditional resources, from the community service, and from the blending of the two. 

So, academic credit is not awarded for doing service or for the quality of the service, but rather for the student's demonstration of academic and civic learning."

Howard, J. (1993). "Community service learning in the curriculum. In J. Howard (Ed.), Praxis I: A faculty casebook on community service learning. (pp. 3-12). Ann Arbor: OCSL Press

The class fosters learning from other students, from the instructor, and the community; all serve as co-educators. 

Through a community-based learning experience, all involved serve as co-educators in the process. We encourage faculty members to provide opportunities for students to learn from each other, community representatives, neighborhood explorations, and to view all interactions as opportunities for learning. 

Consider the following: 

  • Bringing a community partner to campus to teach a component of your class
  • Assigning students to interview a member of the community to learn more about their background and connection to the issues the organization address
  • Providing opportunities for students to work in small groups and share their experiences and insights
  • Facilitating classroom discussions in which all students are invited to participate

Assessment of service-learning courses is essential. Evaluative feedback is needed from: (1) students, (2) community partner(s), and (3) the faculty member. CCES offers tools to achieve this criteria and will need access to this data.

SET Questions

All community-based learning courses are evaluated through 4 designated ITS questions. These are automatically added to the online ITS's and completed by students at the end of the semester. 

Students are asked the following: 

  1. My professor helped prepare me for work in the nonprofit sector and community.

  2. The community work I carried out deepened my understanding of assignments, lectures, and readings in the course.

  3. My community-based learning work contributed to the community or organization.

  4. I had the opportunity to reflect critically on my community work and its relationship to the course content with my class and professor.

The ITS results are returned to the CCES office and used to inform future CBL faculty trainings.

Community Partner Survey

It is important to receive feedback from our community partners. 

CCES provides the following survey to evaluate the community-based learning experience from the partner's perspective. 

Follow the link below to preview the survey. We ask that faculty forward this survey along to their community partners during the 14th week of the semester.

The CBL Timeline

CB Designation Application: Primary application for CB designation happens the semester before the course will run. Professors only need to apply for the designation once per class as it will automatically carry over to future semesters. Submissions are evaluated based by staff in the Center for Community Engagement & Service and approved by department chairs and course schedulers. Once processed, you will be notified of designation approval or with feedback on the changes necessary to earn the designation.

Orientation: Faculty will be onboarded through an Orientation hosted by the CCES office. CCES will collect course syllabi, facilitate connection with Community Partners as needed, and link GivePulse to course Canvas pages.

Pre-Semester Survey: This quick survey will collect data on class meeting times, wether the class will be project or hours based, and if students will be given a Community Partner in class or will need to find one on their own.

Mid-Semester Check-in: CCES will check-in with faculty to ensure the semester is running smoothly and troubleshoot as needed. Here the final presentation date will be shared so that CCES staff can attend. If faculty would like money for food, posters, or guest speakers at their class Final Presentation, it can be requested.

End-of-Semester: CCES staff will attend final presentations for each CB class. The office will also reach out to faculty and Community Partners for feedback.

Designate Your Course

To request a CB designation for your Spring 2024 undergraduate course, please fill out this form. 

For a list of previous and current CB courses, visit this page.

For more information, contact sgupta@american.edu

CBL Readings

Looking for more resources on Community-Based Learning? We recommend the following readings: 

Interested in Community-Based Learning?

Email sgupta@american.edu to join to our listserv and follow the link below for upcoming Community-Based Learning events.

Campus Compact and the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning are also helpful resources on CBLR best practices.