Webinars Hosted by NSLC

Rigorous evaluations can be helpful to service-learning practitioners. Effective evaluations can document outcomes, identify program design characteristics associated with outcomes, and provide data to use to improve service-learning practice. This one-hour seminar will provide information about the basics of evaluation - how to develop evaluation questions from logic models, choices for evaluation design and the benefits and disadvantages associated with each, developing and/or identifying appropriate instruments for data collection, data collection strategies and issues (including human subjects protections), and reporting. A "case study" example, using a cluster evaluation of eight Learn and Serve America state grantees and two national studies, will be provided.

During this one-hour webinar, take a tour of the revised second edition of The Complete Guide to Service Learning: Proven, Practical Ways to Engage Students in Civic Responsibility, Academic Curriculum & Social Action with author and international service-learning expert Cathryn Berger Kaye. Her guidance will provide you time-saving insights and tools, show you extensive resources that maximize academic connections, increase youth voice, add meaning and purpose, develop reciprocal benefits with your partners, and bring learning to life! As you address the national focus areas, dive into the National Learn & Serve Challenge, work toward a Semester of Service, or ensure that your service-learning integrates critical thinking, skill development, and well-integrated curriculum, this webinar is for you!

This webinar shares the findings of Amanda Vogel’s recent study of a cohort of 17 higher education institutions that participated in the 1995-1998 CNCS-funded Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation (HPSISN) program. Drawing on interviews with key faculty and staff from 16 of these schools, the presenters will describe the factors most deeply influencing the sustainability of service-learning in the HPSISN institutions and will provide recommendations for how funders, academic institutions, and faculty and staff involved in service-learning can best support sustainability.

Institutions of Higher Education often focus on service learning and civic engagement initiatives that send students into the community in ways that are robust for a semester (or a quarter) but may not continue after the semester. These may be successful for the moment, often episodic, depending on a faculty member's commitment to the community, the community organization's commitment to the institution, or student desire to continue with the agency after the grading period ended. Wagner College, through a grant supported by Learn and Serve of the Corporation for National and Community Service, created Civic Innovations: a model that fosters sustainable and successful community-university service learning collaborations.

Service-learning courses—including those supported by Learn and Serve America and thus prohibited from supporting partisan events and advocacy—can contribute a great deal to the health of our democracy by deliberately engaging students in ways that develop their political skills, knowledge, and dispositions. At the heart of service-learning (and higher education more generally) is the imperative of open inquiry. The presenters shared key findings from the Carnegie Foundation's Political Engagement Project, specific examples of activities that can be incorporated into service-learning courses without violating CNCS regulations, and suggestions and resources related to developing faculty members' capacity to facilitate such activities.

The presenters shared specific models for expanding the role of students, discussed best practices, and explored common tensions (e.g., student autonomy vs. institutional grounding). The session also highlighted Federal Work-Study funding for community service positions as an excellent resource for ensuring that leadership opportunities are accessible to students from all financial backgrounds.This important conversation drew particularly upon examples from two Campus Compact publications: Students as Colleagues: Expanding the Circle of Service-Learning Leadership and Earn, Learn, and Serve: Getting the Most from Community Service Federal Work-Study.