What is Academic Service Learning?

Academic service-learning combines service with the mission of research universities and is a pedagogy designed to integrate community outreach with academic study and research generating new knowledge within that field or area. Through this unique combination, academic service-learning actively engages students by helping them better understand course content and reflect on their personal values and professional goals. Service-learning increases critical thinking, self-efficacy, and civic responsibility. Cultivating these traits will develop life-long learners, researchers, and community leaders.

Institutions that support academic service-learning make a difference in the community by providing tangible outcomes to community agencies and advancing the research of society’s needs. Students from a class may volunteer at an agency for a few hours per week, conduct research on an issue or problem and develop solutions to benefit an agency or clientele, or design a plan (marketing, architectural, etc.) to accommodate the organization’s needs. Academic service-learning develops positive relationships between the University and the community, as well as builds awareness of community issues, agencies, and constituents.

Academic service-learning can also help achieve the University’s mission by providing a means to combine teaching, research, and outreach with community needs and issues, allowing faculty and staff to meet their professional goals. In addition, grants are available to aid implementation of academic service-learning in the classroom and research. Furthermore, service-learning can improve retention since students engaged in service-learning are more likely to graduate.

As UNL’s service-learning center, Student Involvement assists students, faculty, community organizations, and the institution by developing partnerships and fostering the use of service-learning in the classroom.

Click here for photos from the Duke University Research service-learning visit.