‘Considerations and Strategies for Assessing the Impacts of Service-Learning‘ by Andrew Furco

Measuring the impact of service-learning can be elusive, especially given the many different purposes it can service and goals it can achieve. In addition, as highly contextualized practice, it is not always appropriate to apply prefabricated instruments to assessing the impacts of particular service-learning activities.

In this session, expert Andrew Furco (University of Minnesota) will explore the different ways to assess the various impacts of service-learning on students, teachers, and the community. He will review different tools for measuring service-learning impacts as well as discuss key considerations for developing an effective assessment strategy.

The questions that will be addressed:

• How does one measure the impact of service-learning?
• What are possible indicators to measure service-learning impact?
• On what level should we measure impact (e.g., student level, course level, curriculum level)?
• What are/can be the roles of teachers and community partners in measuring impact?
• If service-learning quality matters, what are the minimum criteria for high-quality service-learning to ensure positive outcomes and high impact?
  

Participation in this lecture is free, but don’t forget to register online in advance.

From 2008-2022 he served as the University of Minnesota’s Associate Vice President for Public Engagement. In this role he worked to integrate community engagement more fully into the institution’s research and teaching priorities, promoting the advancement of service-learning across the disciplines.

Prior to arriving at Minnesota, he served for 14 years as the founding director of the Service-Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Berkeley.

He has led more than 30 service-learning and community engagement-focused research studies and is currently leading the development of a Global Research Agenda for Service-Learning and Community Engagement for the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).