Center for Teaching and Learning

How Do I Assess Service-Learning in My Courses?

 

(Adapted from Miami Dade College)

Evaluate your service-learning outcomes as you would any other academic product.

Remember, students are being graded on the academic product, not their hours of service. Many of us feel uncertain when it comes to evaluating or assessing the outcomes of experiences we did not completely structure or present. By designing flexible measures, however, you can use the same standard used in evaluating any other written or oral presentation: Did the student master the course material? This is the only way to assure academic integrity of the strategy.

You may also wish to utilize formative and summative research techniques to measure your success in achieving your objectives.

• Formative assessment can be achieved through reading student journals with an eye toward answering your initial questions (Are they learning algebra? Is their writing more alive? Is the service setting appropriate?). Periodic quick surveys can provide specific answers to issues such as student satisfaction with the process, utility of experimental techniques, etc.

• Summative techniques might be employed to compare learning outcomes for service-learning sections with those from traditionally taught sections. For quantitative research, you could collect data on the number and type of people served by your students and the number of hours provided. Collecting stories and gleaning information related to your objectives is a possible qualitative approach. The opportunities for research in the area of service-learning abound, and any contribution to this body of knowledge will help us improve and expand the application of the strategy.

Formal Evaluation

(Citation: Geiger, Elke. Service-Learning Toolbox. Portland , OR : Rural Education Program, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. http://www.nwrel.org/ruraled/learnserve/resources/SL_Toolbox.pdf )

The formal evaluation process can be broken down into three major areas: student learning, student service, and student experience. Evaluation is crucial in order to assess the success of the project and also give feedback for improvement in future projects.

1. Assessing your Students' Learning
 Linking your assessment of the service and learning components to your course goals and objectives will give you the best picture for both summative and formative (for future projects) evaluations. It also eliminates surprises for students, provided that you have included them in the entire development process. There are several ways to evaluate the success of the program.

Using rubrics allows you to clearly link outcomes to objectives. Students, teachers and community partners can use these to evaluate the process as a whole, the project outcomes, or individuals (e.g., self-evaluation or teachers evaluating students). Students may also want to evaluate the community partner on willingness to work with them in positive ways.

An example of using rubrics for each participant is given below. Scoring occurs on a high-to-low scale. Scales can measure performance, satisfaction, learning, etc. Scales should be clearly stated at the top of each rubric. It is essential if you are going to use rubrics that you also include a section for written comments so that students and the community partner have a chance to express additional thoughts or to refer to a tangible outcome.

Check one for each objective.

4=Outstanding; 3=Very well; 2=Satisfactory; 1=Needs Improvement

 

Objective

4

3

2

1

Comments

1.

2.

3.

Assignments or portfolios that are submitted for course credit can be evaluated in accordance with your normal procedures.

2. Assessing Your Students' Service
 Design an instrument to collect information from your community partner. You may want to ask about:

Share and discuss the information you receive with your students.

3. Assessing the Experience for Students
 Design an instrument to collect information on your students' attitudes about the project. You may ask them:

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