Community Engagement

The following definitions were developed to inform faculty and student discourse and are contextualized to shape the activities of the university.

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Course: Courses containing a community engaged component involving student participation in activities beneficial to the community partner for the purpose providing an experiential opportunity to establish, reinforce or connect theories, concepts and or skills of the course content.

All CEL courses must:

1. 1. 1. Meet an identified community need(s)
      2. Connect to specific learning outcomes for the course that address the development of knowledge and/or a skill, required to master the course content
      3. Provide intentional student reflection in which the student connection of the community engaged experience to learning course content is the desired outcome.

Community: A group of people external to the campus who are affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, similar situation or shared values. Communities may share characteristics such as age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture, faith, or industry.

Community Engaged Learning (CEL): A pedagogical approach that connects students with activities that address community-identified needs through mutually beneficial partnerships providing an experiential opportunity to establish, reinforce or connect theories, concepts and or skills of the course content.

Community Engaged Scholarship: All research, teaching, service and creative activities undertaken by faculty members in collaboration with the community including those with their students that integrate community engagement and scholarship.

Community Engagement: Collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good. 

Alternative Definition of Community Engagement: The collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in the context of partnership and reciprocity. It can involve partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems and serve as catalysts for initiating and/or changing policies, programs, and practices.

Community Partner: Local, state, national, or global individuals, groups, and organizations external to the university whether non-profit organizations, civic agencies and schools, or for-profit businesses in various stages of collaborative relationship with the university.

Community Service: According to the federal government’s Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), community service includes both direct and indirect service activities including but not limited to curricular community-engaged courses/service-learning, co-curricular volunteer activities, as well as paid federal work study (FWS) dedicated to community organizations, and paid internships in community organizations.

Community Outreach: Outreach is one-way communication that tells community members about an issue, problem, opportunity, or decision. 

Partnership: Collaboration, (sustained, well defined and organized single instance or periodic occurrence) between institutions of higher education and communities for the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, information, and resources. Examples are research, capacity building, or economic development.

Scholarship: Activities contributing directly to the cumulative knowledge or creative resources in a faculty member’s discipline that is open to critique, validation by their peers and dissemination to the broader community.

Service-learning: a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development.  -Jacoby (1996)

How to Submit a Course Change Form

Please follow the training guide here: USF Curriculog – Course Change Proposal Tutorial.

On page 18, you'll check the box for Community Engaged Learning (Office of Community Engagement & Partnerships).

Community Engaged Learning (HIP - CEL)

Carnegie defines Community Engagement as follows: collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civil responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.

Please be prepared to submit the following:

Describe the Community Engaged Experience. Be sure to include:

1. An overview of the students’ engagement experience
2. How the engagement experience is connected to the course goals and objectives
3. The name of the community partner(s), or the process by which the community partner will be selected
4. The community and/or community partner’s needs addressed by the engagement experience

Required Student Learning Outcomes:

All Community Engaged Learning courses should include at least one Student Learning Outcome (SLO) that addresses each of these questions:

1. What knowledge do you want student to acquire from the CEL experience?
2. What skills/abilities do you want students to develop from their CEL experience?

CEL Course Assignments:

To make certain that community engagement does not underachieve in its role as an instrument of learning, careful thought must be given to learning activities that encourage the integration of experiential and academic learning. These activities include: classroom discussions, presentations, and journal and paper assignments that support analysis of community engagement experiences in the context of the course’s academic and civic learning objectives. Please provide an example of at least two activities you will use to maximize community engaged learning experiences.

Please describe the grading component of the course, making sure to clarify how students earn academic credit for the learning and not the “service” to the community.

Self-Reflection Assignment:

All Community Engaged Learning Courses must have a self-reflection assignment that encourages students to link what they are learning during the community engaged learning experience to the course content. It should also all students to link what they are learning with possible societal obligations they may have during their career and encourage them to reflect upon how community engaged learning experiences can be beneficial. 

Required Syllabus Statement:

This course is designated as Community Engaged Learning (CEL). You'll will be required to include the following statement in your Community Engaged Learning course syllabus.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching defines community engagement as the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

Key components:

1. It enhances understanding of course content and is tied to specific learning goals through consciously designed reflection.
2. One of the learning goals is civic engagement, intended to enhance students' sense of personal responsibility to participate in the public realm to address current pressing social problems, and thus going beyond the academic or skill based goals of the course.
3. It's based on a reciprocal relationship through which the activities are planned and implemented through collaboration with a community partner to meet the challenges identified by that partner. 

From this point, you will continue and finish with the PDF Training Guide.