It is suggested that agencies and faculty connect before the Service-Learning students start their service work. Here are some tips to help facilitate that conversation.
Discuss class goals:
- Discuss course goals
- Desired learning outcomes (do students need to be exposed to a population, task, or issue?)
- Students’ capacities (what skills & knowledge can they contribute to a project?)
- Number of students available
- Scope of project or number of expected service hours
- Course deadlines that might relate to agencies
- Agency visits to the classroom, faculty visits to the site
- Methods for evaluating student service
Discuss agency goals:
- Agency needs
- Potential projects and specific tasks
- Parameters for service projects (desired outcome, timeline, location, and evaluation)
- Supervision, training requirements, onsite orientations, any safety issues
- Method/frequency of exchanging feedback between faculty and agency