Service Learning Faculty Resources
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COURSE DEVELOPMENT GRANT APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

The Service Learning Program invites applicants for Faculty Course Development Grants. Grants are for faculty interested in creating and teaching a Service Learning course. The $2,000 grants will be awarded to faculty on a competitive basis and are intended to underwrite the cost of preparing a new “SL” designated course, participating in professional development workshops, undergoing an assessment of the course, and volunteering at least 10 hours alongside the students in the class.

Selected faculty receive $500 after completing the SL Training Workshop series, offered annually to full–time and part–time faculty interested in learning more about
service learning and community engagement in academic settings. An additional $1500 will be awarded after a full-time faculty member completes the SL Training Workshop series and then designs and teaches their first SL course. Because the Service Learning Program wants to ensure the highest quality of student experience, courses that receive an “SL” designation will only be taught by faculty who receive a Course Development Grant. The Service Learning Program solicits applications each spring.

 

Purpose of the Grants:

The Provost’s Academic Strategic Plan (ASP) charges the faculty to “engage” students in active learning outside the classroom” in order to “expand student horizons, connecting their work and life experiences with education,” and it specifically calls for increased Service Learning courses (p. 24). Such courses will prepare our students to engage critically the moral problems they will face as citizens and professionals after college (p. 24). Similarly, the past Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) demands the institutionalization and development of Service Learning courses as part of the experiential education High Point students need “to lead lives of significance within our complex and increasingly interdependent global communities” (QEP p. 1519, ASP p. 24). More specifically, the QEP directs the Service Learning Program to provide “stipends to faculty who develop courses with a civic engagement component” (p. 18). Both the QEP and ASP challenge the faculty to offer enough Service Learning courses so that all of our students are able to participate.

 

In order to ensure a high-quality experience for all students, we must intentionally develop the competency of at least 20% of our faculty to teach Service Learning courses so that the quality, quantity, and variety of courses are offered to guarantee that all students can enroll in the kind of Service Learning course that matter most to their course of study.

 

Service Learning is defined as:

  • A 4-credit undergraduate (or 3-credit graduate) course that includes 25 total hours of service from each student enrolled in the course
  • Inclusion of three of four Service Learning program learning outcomes in the course syllabus
  • Inclusion of a written reflection assignment sequence addressing connections between service work and academic learning goals of the course
  • Submission of a final assessment (a Qualtrics survey and course artifact) from each enrolled student on behalf of the Service Learning program

Community Engagement is defined as:

  • Any undergraduate or graduate course that includes an assignment, project, or out-of-class opportunity for service with a local community partner organization
  • Though encouraged and supported by the Service Learning program, student service hours do not have to be tallied, and learning outcomes do not have to align with the Service Learning program expectations
  • Examples of community engagement include: a client-based project, a community-based qualitative and/or quantitative research project, attendance at a volunteer event off campus, completion of traditional volunteer service hours at a nonprofit organization whose mission aligns with some element of the course’s academic objectives

 

Faculty interested in applying for a Course Development Grant should:

  1. Have a conversation with Kimberly Drye-Dancy, Executive Director, about your course idea.
  2. Look at the Definition of Service Learning at High Point University and the Guidelines for Service Learning Courses posted at: https://www.highpoint.edu/servicelearning/guidelines-for-service-learning/
  3. Complete a Course Development Grant Application.
  4. Actively participate in four professional development workshops offered on Friday afternoons. If you teach during this time, we ask that you schedule an online class or other class activities so you can attend the workshop.
  5. Create a syllabus to be submitted to the Service Learning Committee.  The workshops will help you develop your syllabus.
  6. Teach the course in following academic year.
  7. Volunteer at least 10 hours with your course’s community partners during the semester in which you teach your course
  8. Participate in a post-assessment of your course
  9. Share your course materials and expertise in future Professional Development Workshops, if needed
Keep Reading

Contact Kimberly Drye-Dancy, Executive Director,
([email protected]; 336–841–4682) for more information and access to the
SL Faculty Blackboard page.

The Service Learning Program is engaged in an extensive assessment strategy to improve the student learning and community service aspects of the program. The Service Learning Committee has created and approved an assessment strategy based on the LEAP Outcomes and the VALUE rubrics created by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Course Selection Criteria:

In approving courses to be designated “SL”, the Service Learning Committee will seek a balanced set of courses that

  • Have broad student appeal
  • Have a specialized focus
  • Make a unique contribution to the community
  • Focus on an ethical aspect of the subject
  • Embed ethical questions in the syllabus and assessment tools (for example, the course should ask questions about justice issues, distribution, fairness, civic responsibility, good character, citizenship, the meaning of the common good, etc.)
  • Thoroughly integrate reflection on the theoretical and the practical
  • Represent the interdisciplinary nature of service learning
  • Further the University’s mission and profile as a school that emphasizes experiential learning in order to encourage civic responsibility and character development

Register For SL Training Workshops Download Syllabus Checklist