Web site to collect data on service-based learning

9:15 a.m., Oct. 24, 2003--The University’s Academic Council on Service-Based Learning has created a web site that will help it discover what type of service-learning already exists on campus.

The 13-member council, which was created last spring by Provost Dan Rich, wants to collect information on any course or activity that involves students out of the classroom.

Data collection will take place on the web site [www.ipa.udel.edu/servicelearning] and will help the council make recommendations on how to extend and integrate service-learning within and across the University’s many academic programs.

Co-chairs of the council, Robin Morgan, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Timothy Barnekov, dean of the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy, encourage faculty and staff who teach and direct courses, programs and volunteer activities involving students outside the classroom to list their activity on the web site.

“It will take about five minutes to complete, in most cases,” Morgan said. “Instructors can log in and describe whether the activity is an academic course, internship or clinical experience, volunteer or community service or other category.

“Some existing courses will be clearly service learning. Others could become service learning opportunities with some modification,” Morgan said.

The web site also provides a definition of service-learning and lists model programs at the University of Pennsylvania , Rutgers and the University of Maryland. “In the future, even the web site will be a resource for students to search and find an opportunity for service-based learning,” Barnekov said.

“Perhaps instructors will be able to find funding to adapt a course into service-learning, or there may be stipends for students who wish to be involved in service-learning opportunities,” Morgan said.

According to the web site, service-learning is more than community service or volunteering and more than experiential learning or internships. Service learning requires that students learn and develop through active participation in organized service experiences that are:

Integrated into the academic curriculum;
Meet the needs of a community;
Provide time to reflect on the experience and encourage solution analysis; and
Foster civic responsibility.

As an example, the web site states that cleaning up a river bank is just service and looking at water samples under a microscope is just learning. On the other hand, according to the site, biology majors who adhere to state standards by taking samples from local streams, analyzing the samples and then presenting the information to a pollution control agency are involved in service-learning.

“Service-learning at the University will not be a requirement, but an opportunity,” Morgan said. “Having a college education should create a sense of obligation to apply one’s talents, as appropriate, to the community.”

Other members of the council include Pam Beeman, associate dean of the College of Health and Nursing Sciences; Joel Best, professor of sociology and criminal justice; Martha Carothers, interim faculty director for the Center for Teaching Effectiveness; Deanna Forgione, a junior in the College of Arts and Science from Newtown, Pa.; Ed Freel, policy scientist in the Institute for Public Administration; Kathleen Kerr, director of Residence Life; James O’Neill, professor of economics; Bahira Sherif-Trask, associate professor of individual and family studies; Jack Townsend, director of MBNA Career Services Center; and April Veness, associate professor of geography.

Article by Cornelia Weil

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