Course Development and Scholarship

Any faculty member can choose to implement a community engagement project/assignment in a class. A course does not need to have been previously identified “service learning” or “community engaged." The CCE supports all faculty who are interested in implementing a project – and any course can be loaded into the CalStateS4 system to assist faculty with student placements and community partnerships.

For individual consultations and assistance with implementing service learning and community engagement, please email Emily Chow, Senior Coordinator, Center for Community Engagement emily.chow@csueastbay.edu

Please CLICK HERE for our faculty handbook which covers how to design courses, manage placement/partnerships, prepare students, and develop faculty scholarship. [or use this full link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/108MAlk3ebrdIhAuNlM1c2Z_5CE34MtN1?usp=sharing ]

To ensure strong communication with students, syllabi in community engaged courses should include:

• A definition of community engagement or service learning and an explanation of how or why this type of learning activity is important to the course or discipline
• A description of the community engagement or service learning activities and how they connect to community needs
• Identification of time commitment or requirement (if relevant)
• Instructions for the placement process, including finding/contacting partners, confirming placement, logging hours.
• Identification of course materials that connect community and course learning
• An articulation of student learning outcomes relevant to the community engagement/service learning activity (e.g. civic learning) or that demonstrate the connection between community and course learning
• Identification of assignments that connect community and course learning (e.g. reflections, papers, presentations, discussions)
• Explanation of any assessment tied to community engagement or service learning activity or assignments

Campus Compact hosts an archive of sample syllabi available at https://compact.org/resource-type/syllabi/

Loyola University New Orleans has a well organized database by disciple. Click here to open PDFs of sample syllabi. 

Additional Resources:

Ballard, Sharon M., Elmore, Barry. “A Labor of Love: Constructing a Service-Learning Syllabus,” The Journal of Effective Teaching, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2009, 70-76 accessed at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1092123.pdf

Guidelines for Managing Remote/Virtual Service Learning/Community Engagement  

Reminders: 

• All courses that include a community engagement component are automatically  uploaded to CalStateS4 for student and faculty use. Any course not currently in the  system can be uploaded based on instructor request. 
• Students and faculty of these courses automatically have access with their net id login.  https://app.calstates4.com/csueastbay
• CalStateS4 manages the student placement and community partnership processes. It  allows faculty and students to search current “approved” partners (partners with an  MOU in place). 
• CalStateS4 allows faculty to create a pre-approved partner list for students in their  classes. 
• CalStateS4 facilitates student requests for non-contracted sites (especially useful as  students are distributed throughout the region currently).
• CalStateS4 allows faculty to email the partners and placement sites for their students  easily. 
• CalStateS4 allows faculty to track student progress and activities through its Time Log  function. 
• CalStateS4 allows students to record hours and confirm hours at the end of the  semester, which means faculty do not have to do any additional reporting. 
• CCE staff are available to consult directly with faculty on assignments and partnerships. 
• CCE staff are available to present to your classes on CalStateS4 and the placement  process. 

CalStateS4 - Current Opportunities (Students and Faculty must log in using net id to view)

Class Models for Virtual/Remote CE/SL  

• “Work at home” options – Students complete support work for an organization that might have been completed on site in offices, but now is completed at home. This may take the form of on-going weekly work or project-based learning.
  • Managing databases, spreadsheets, contact lists, websites, and social media.
  • Developing resources.
  • Doing research.

• “Service at home” options – Students engage in actual contact with organization clientele (or the community at large) remotely via phone or web platform. 
  • Support services for organization clientele/the public: call-in services, advice lines, information lines
  • Educational support: workshops, academic coaching, tutoring, mentoring
  • Health services: wellness visits/coaching, fitness coaching
  • Recreational support: creative performances for under-served or isolated populations (ex. performances for senior centers that are livestreamed); theatre games or arts and crafts activities with youth through a web platform

• Hybrid - Wherein students participate in the above activities with occasional or limited "on site" activities

Virtual/Remote Liability Considerations - 

From the Chancellor's Office Center for Community Engagement:

Slides & Resources from the CO's 3-Part Web Series on Creating Virtual & Remote SL/CE Experiences

The National Association of System Heads (NASH) offers an online module for faculty and universities on creating scalable and equitable high impact teaching and learning practices. HIPS ONLINE

• Civic engagement within academics refers to the development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to make a difference or participate in the civic life of our communities. Through civic learning students develop civic values, such as democratic participation. Civic knowledge includes political and civic processes as well as the related historical contexts. Civic skills include critical thinking, communication, problem solving, among others.  

• Civic engagement and community engagement  intersect in that community engaged assignments may be used as a method for civic learning. However, not all community engagement integrates civic engagement and not all civic engagement includes community service assignments. Civic engagement assignments may be more project-based and not necessarily in partnership with a community-based organization. Community engaged learning happens within a context of partnership and reciprocity with a community-based organization.

• The Center for Community Engagement is focused on civic engagement that contains a specific “community facing” component (public dissemination). (See Civic Engagement Projects below.)

• Civic Engagement Projects (CEP) may be distinguised from community-engaged or service learning in that they don't take place in partnership with or for a community organization (i.e. are not "community based").

• CEP that intersect with community engagement actively benefit the community through intentional public dissemination  ("community facing" results) and integrate learning outcomes related to civic engagement.

• While faculty may assign CEP that do not include public dissemination, the Center for Community Engagement is focused on civic engagement that contains a specific “community facing” component (public dissemination).

Use the resources available through these organizations to develop lessons, assignments, or research activities for students. 

Digital Citizenship

What is digital citizenship?

Digital Citizenship Rubric 

Think about preparing students for virtual civic engagement with a discussion of the principles of digital citizenship.

Congress

Connecting to Congress - Tools and opportunities for connecting with Congressional offices.

Everyday Democracy

https://www.everyday-democracy.org/

Everyday Democracy supports organizing across the country by bringing diverse groups of people together, helping them structure and facilitate community dialogue on pressing issues, and training them to use a racial equity lens to understand longstanding problems and possible solutions.

Facing History and Ourselves

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/online-civic-participation

Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Livestream or Watch Supreme Court hearings

https://www.c-span.org/supremeCourt/

What was the case name? The central issue? What were the key arguments outlined by the attorneys? Key questions by the justices? How long did it last? How much of the time was used by attorneys? By the justices? Do you think you could tell whether judges were supportive or skeptical of the arguments being advanced by the attorneys? What were the most interesting lines of questioning you heard? What did you learn about the Court and about oral arguments by viewing?

Issues for Debate  

National Issues Forum - Resources on public deliberation on campuses and within communities.

Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org/

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions.

Street Law

https://www.streetlaw.org/who-we-are

Street Law programs and materials help advance justice by empowering people with the legal and civic knowledge, skills, and confidence to bring about positive change for themselves and others.

The Fulcrum

https://thefulcrum.us/about-us/our-mission/our-funders

The Fulcrum is a digital news organization focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions plaguing American democracy. We are nonprofit and nonpartisan. Our original stories, the news we gather from across the country and our opinion forum are all tightly focused on money in politics, redistricting, voting rights, election access, government ethics, civic engagement and the imbalance of powers.

Library of Congress - Civil Rights History Collection  - The activists interviewed for this project belong to a wide range of occupations, including lawyers, judges, doctors, farmers, journalists, professors, and musicians, among others. The video recordings of their recollections cover a wide range of topics within the freedom struggle, such as the influence of the labor movement, nonviolence and self-defense, religious faith, music, and the experiences of young activists. 

Facing History - Resources that explore racism, prejudice, and religious intolerance.

Inclusive Teaching Practices Toolkit  - The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) has created an Inclusive Teaching Practices Toolkit which supports faculty in creating learning environments where all students feel they belong.

Racial Justice Resources  

Smithsonian Learning Lab Resources: A sample of educational resources available at this link are listed below:

• National Museum of African American History and Culture
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
• Smithsonian Latino Center

The Global Oneness Project - A library of multimedia stories (films, photo essays, and essays) with curriculum and discussion guides - featuring individuals and communities impacted by climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty, endangered cultures, migration, and sustainability. 

Ernest Boyer, former President  of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, wrote one of the seminal works on the scholarship of engagement, "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate" (Jossey Bass 1990). This book is available for loan through the CCE.

Boyer also penned an article in 1996:

Boyer, Ernest. "The Scholarship of Engagement," Boyer, E. (1996). "The scholarship of engagement." Journal of Public Service and Outreach, 1(1), 11-20. Accessed at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1097206.pdf

Michigan State University has an engaged scholar newsletter https://engagedscholar.msu.edu/

The Engaged Scholarship Consortium hosts conferences https://engagementscholarship.org/ and provides resources. Click here to view a database of suggested journals for review and publication. 

Campus Compact's Community-Engaged Research Knowledge Hub

For information on how to include community engagement in faculty dossiers here at Cal State East Bay, refer to our this handout on Community Engagement in Faculty Dossiers

The Chancellor’s Office has called for two common attributes and definitions of Service Learning (CSLI) and Curricular Community-Engaged Learning (CCEL) across all CSUs to improve data collection, assessment, and information transparency with students. CO definitions have been designed to encompass existing campus definitions (not supersede).  

The attributes will be implemented through a faculty survey managed through CalStateS4 and the Center for Community Engagement. The survey will be disseminated to faculty teaching a wide variety of community engaged courses. Based on a faculty member's response to the survey, a course will receive either the CSLI or CCEL attribute. The internships attribute is still active, but based on the inventory process, there may be a revision of NTRN courses.

Please visit the Community Engagement Course Attribute page for complete information.

Resources on strategies and guiding principles:

»Discussions from a viewpoint of community partners

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ur1ySm5IZGQyVTha5N91LvnoK2z8KhlF

»Discussions from a faculty viewpoint https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Uwp5_Vm8jZA5qiEnO8XcIB5GXmJVj4xj

»9 Principles of CBR http://drive.google.com/open?id=1UqnYOyZ3eChwtBgXryBVMITyJA6x2e8z

»Thought Questions for CBR projects https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UyBl_cQjYIfgubu2VfQSo_yrusKmKp8g

 Campus Compact's Community-Engaged Research Knowledge Hub