Jumping in with Both Feet: Evaluating One Week Community-Engaged Courses

Presentation Format

Individual Presentation

Intended Audience

Faculty/Practitioners

Program Abstract

A model designed for maximum immersion – a one week full credit course – was developed and tested in two different fields and formats: an inner city Social Activism course and a course on Families Experiencing Childhood Cancer taught in Florida. Student data collected pre and post will be discussed as well as logistical issues, pros and cons of this format, and ways to assess the impact of the course on their students.

Presentation Description

There are many ways to deliver community-engaged scholarship, this presentation will explore a novel format designed for maximum immersion – a one week course. Finding innovative ways to offer these courses has multiple benefits to the institution, to students, and to faculty. To investigate the impact of an immersion course, a similar format was developed involving over 45 hours of face time combined with outside readings and videos, daily debriefing, daily reflection journals (using the ORID framework), activism portfolios, and written assignments designed to bridge the readings with their experiences in the community. This model was then implemented during May and July of 2015 covering two different fields of study, formats of engagement (one organization versus several), and in different locations. A Social Activism course offered by the Women’s and Gender Studies program was taught on site in Atlanta, GA and focused on topics of homelessness, food insecurity, at-risk youth, and disparities in the legal system. Students worked with Hearts to Nourish Hope, the Atlanta Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and 7 Bridges to Recovery. The other course was offered by the Psychology department on Childhood Cancer and students worked with families experiencing cancer through the Lighthouse organization in Destin, Fl. Students in both classes completed objective and subjective questionnaires before and after the courses, as well as open ended questions. Similar questions and questionnaires were used in both classes (e.g., Just World Scale, Philanthropy Scale, Bales Volunteerism-Activism scale, Helping Attitudes scale, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and identical open-ended questions), and other questionnaires/questions specific to the learning goals of the courses were also included. This presentation will share the data collected during these two service-learning immersion courses and analysis will include quantitative and qualitative aspects of student responses. Goals for this presentation include learning about a novel format for community based learning, discussing the logistics involved in this type of course, and analyzing the pros and cons of this format. However, other primary goals of this presentation is to engage the audience in considering how to assess student learning (with quantitative and qualitative data) and brainstorming ways to try out different ways to provide community-based learning experiences and how this might vary with the field of study and population that the students are working with. The format for this presentation will be discussion oriented after presenting the data.

Location

Room - 1220B

Start Date

4-14-2016 10:45 AM

End Date

4-14-2016 12:00 PM

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Apr 14th, 10:45 AM Apr 14th, 12:00 PM

Jumping in with Both Feet: Evaluating One Week Community-Engaged Courses

Room - 1220B

There are many ways to deliver community-engaged scholarship, this presentation will explore a novel format designed for maximum immersion – a one week course. Finding innovative ways to offer these courses has multiple benefits to the institution, to students, and to faculty. To investigate the impact of an immersion course, a similar format was developed involving over 45 hours of face time combined with outside readings and videos, daily debriefing, daily reflection journals (using the ORID framework), activism portfolios, and written assignments designed to bridge the readings with their experiences in the community. This model was then implemented during May and July of 2015 covering two different fields of study, formats of engagement (one organization versus several), and in different locations. A Social Activism course offered by the Women’s and Gender Studies program was taught on site in Atlanta, GA and focused on topics of homelessness, food insecurity, at-risk youth, and disparities in the legal system. Students worked with Hearts to Nourish Hope, the Atlanta Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and 7 Bridges to Recovery. The other course was offered by the Psychology department on Childhood Cancer and students worked with families experiencing cancer through the Lighthouse organization in Destin, Fl. Students in both classes completed objective and subjective questionnaires before and after the courses, as well as open ended questions. Similar questions and questionnaires were used in both classes (e.g., Just World Scale, Philanthropy Scale, Bales Volunteerism-Activism scale, Helping Attitudes scale, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and identical open-ended questions), and other questionnaires/questions specific to the learning goals of the courses were also included. This presentation will share the data collected during these two service-learning immersion courses and analysis will include quantitative and qualitative aspects of student responses. Goals for this presentation include learning about a novel format for community based learning, discussing the logistics involved in this type of course, and analyzing the pros and cons of this format. However, other primary goals of this presentation is to engage the audience in considering how to assess student learning (with quantitative and qualitative data) and brainstorming ways to try out different ways to provide community-based learning experiences and how this might vary with the field of study and population that the students are working with. The format for this presentation will be discussion oriented after presenting the data.