University of Southern Indiana - Extended Services: Community Outreach

Service learning at USI is a powerful community-based pedagogy technique. It integrates meaningful community service with instruction and structured reflection. It incorporates a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students.

Service Learning is an academic pedagogical approach to university education that incorporates community projects into courses.

There are two equally important goals of service learning:
1) enhancing student learning and 2) providing a valuable service to the community.

For a service learning project to be successful, both goals must be met simultaneously. Ideally, students learn what courses are intended to teach, supplementing classroom instruction with “real world” experience, while also contributing something valuable to the community.

Typically, successful projects are done with community partners, where relationships are developed between an academic institution and a community group over time. At USI, we are in the process of setting up a Service Learning Program that will provide assistance in identifying and supporting learning projects. Many different departments on campus are participating in a planning process this academic year, while also providing support for a limited number of projects. This work will enable us to support many additional projects in the future.

Currently there are three different types of service learning at USI. Each service learning project will fall
under one of these three categories:

Academic
Course-based credit bearing strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and structured reflection.
Curricular
Involves service projects sponsored by a particular academic major or program of study that may occur outside of classes.
Co-Curricular
Community activities that involve learning objectives and opportunities for reflection that are not usually connected with credit courses.

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