Survey: Investigating student interest in curricular service-learning

This past October we conducted a survey investigating student interest in seeing more service-learning on campus.  The student survey was written to complement the faculty survey we conducted over the summer semester. 

Students were given the following definition of service-learning and were asked to indicate their interest in seeing more service-learning, and whether or not they felt this type of experiential learning was important:

Service-learning is when students volunteer, or work on a project for a local or international not-for profit community agency, for course credit.  Service-learning often includes a reflection component including journal entries, blogs or group discussions.

Examples of courses that include service-learning activities are: 

 
- Volunteering with a local or international community agency for course credit
- Working on a project with a local or international community agency
- Working on a group research project with a local or international agency
- A capstone project that includes working with a community agency

The second part of the survey asked students if they had participated in service-learning in the past and to indicate the course and the learning outcomes they felt they attained through the experience.  Although 38 students indicated they had participated in service-learning, many student comments led us to believe that they may have viewed their internships and co-ops as service-learning activities.  There were some students who were very clear on the definition as they had come from previous institutions with strong service-learning programs.  As a result, there may be some variability in the learning outcomes indicated by students. 

Please see the info-graphic below for more results from our survey!