Get Your Students Hired
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Creating Service Learning Opportunities for Students --> Evaluating Student Progress
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
Evaluation of the students' service learning should be formative and summative and also sharing the feedback with students helps them understand the areas they should focus on.
It's important to make sure when evaluating students what their takeaway was from what they've learned. Experiences and application of what they've learned and gained should help determine if the students made an effort.
From developing a goal statement to systems for giving and receiving Feedback both as the program runs and via faculty and student participant evaluations after, this chapter had a lot of useful, practical ideas toward establishing a well organized and considered SL program.
Wow, this section really showed how important it is to get a variety of partners on board with the effort to run a robust program.
Student evaluation should be ongoing, and students should be given opportunities to evaluate their learning experience.
Evaluating service learning in a classroom involves using formative and summative assessments to asses students' engagement, learning outcomes, personal growth, and contributions to the community through their service experiences. These evaluation processes include measuring students' understanding of course content, critical reflection on their service activities, development of transferrable skills, and impact on the community. Evaluating service learning also involves gathering feedback from students, community partners, and instructors, monitoring student progress and performance, and assessing the alignment of service activities with community needs and outcomes. By evaluating our service-learning programs, we can determine their effectiveness, identify areas of improvement and new partnership opportunities, and recognize the balance of the service experiences in enhancing students' academic, personal, and professional development.
I think my students can apply service learning to the visits we make to various animal facilities. Those 3 questions are fantastic to motivate the students. Bringing back the things learned in service learning help build pride in the facility they attend not just one of the numbers.
Evaluations throughout the service learning experience is an important aspect of a service-learning program. The idea of pass/fail is already something I employ with my interns, and I think it is an effective way to grade this kind of work.
Summative evaluation as well as student self-evaluation and feedback is an important part of the service learning process. Also, results of the site surveys are essential to determine what is working and what needs to be reviewed and/or revised.
I do a night welding class that is open to the public on Thursday nights and it is not a graded class but rather just one that you can just pass or fail by not showing up. It is pretty fun knowing that as long as the student try's they are going to pass.
Students and community members both benefit from community service work. It is important to get and give feedback to make sure the project is meeting their needs. Evaluation of the project is key, and can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as weekly emailed responses.
Evaluation is important for the students because it shows what they have learned during their experience and how it has benefited the community.
We had our student work with the American Red Cross, signing in donors, walkers, and working the canteen table. They were able to interact with the public and assist with an organization. They were very excited to participate in this activity.
Evaluating the students learning from the project is somewhat subjective. Identifying the students initiative and commitment to the project is one factor. The students own assessment of what they've gained from participating is another consideration.
"The service learning model is based upon transferring knowledge and skills acquired in an educational setting to an outside setting for application. Upon reflection you will see that service learning reduces some of the risk of making the transition from career education to the work world by having students use their new knowledge and skills in a setting where they can gain experience, while still under the supervision of the institution."
The evaluation of the program and the students was interestin, as well as using service learning in disaster response. I hadn't thought about it until now, but it's valuable experience for students that would reinforce their sense of social responsibility and community.