PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICE
Reflections on Issues, Efforts, and Experiences 

By Debra Bohr & E. Jill Hirt   

Northampton Community College (NCC) has been assessing its service learning (SL) program by examining institutional fall-to-spring institutional retention rates, GPAs and course grades.  It recently decided to switch gears a bit and assess its program by examining some additional student outcomes, which were developed in consultation with faculty who offer service learning in their classes. As a result of their service learning experience, students will:

• Gain skills in dealing with day-to-day issues and problems,
• Have a better understanding of the course content,  
• Be more self-confident in thier abilities as a student,
• Feel that their leadership skills improved,
• Feel that their interpersonal communication skills improved,
• Have a better understanding of social, political, legal or economic issues, and  
• Be more reflective on their roles in their community.

Students in classes with a service learning component were surveyed during the spring 2011 semester.  Two hundred thirty-five students in 28 different courses (e.g., dental hygiene, health, office administration, education, English, and speech) responded to the survey.  As a result of their service learning experience, about 60% of respondents felt that their interpersonal communication skills had improved and that they will be more reflective about their roles in their communities.  About 50% felt that they were more self-confident in their abilities.  Only about 40% reported that they gained skills in dealing with day-to-day issues, that they had a better understanding of course content, that their leadership skills had improved, or that they had a better understanding of issues.

About 90% of the comments that students offered about their service learning experience were positive.  Examples include, "I had an amazing learning experience," "It helped me understand how little people can have and still be happy," and "It made me more aware of social responsibility."  However, a few did not find the experience to be rewarding; for example, "Takes up too much time out of school and I don't ever have the extra time" and "It's a lot of out of class work which was hard to fit into my schedule."

These descriptive assessment results indicate that the vast majority of service learning students felt that their experience was positive.  This is exciting news based on the fact that service learning is one of the President's Cabinet's priorities for the institution.  Academic deans encourage all faculty to employ a common reading in their classes, and service learning projects and activities are consistently showcased and the pedagogy reinforced at campus-wide meetings.  NCC has become an important resource for other community colleges who are exploring the inclusion of service learning into their institutional priorities.

The next step, having just collated the survey results, is to share these results with SL faculty to get their reactions, thoughts, and ideas for next steps - i.e., using the results to improve SL at NCC.  Meetings are being planned to facilitate these discussions.  Based on the outcomes and recommendations, the service learning program will be refined and emerge with a stronger institutional voice.  NCC would also like to survey faculty and community organizations during the fall 2011 semester to get their feedback on the effectiveness of SL as well.

Service learning has grown tremendously from three students and faculty participating in 1999 to over 300 students and more than 25 faculty participating today.  Support from the President, Vice President of Academic Affairs , Vice President of Student Affairs, and all academic deans was cohesive and consistent throughout the past 12 years, resulting in the steady growth of service learning on campus.  Institutionalization of service learning, which advances learning inside and outside of the classroom, cannot be achieved unless campus-wide support for learning exists.

Debra Bohr is Service Learning Administrator, and E. Jill Hirt is Director of Planning, Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.   

READING LIST  
Current Industry Articles and Reports 

A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, Graduation Measures Should Reflect Community-College Achievement, Advisory Committee Says, addresses the continuing conversation about the importance of publicly available data regarding insitutional effectiveness in achievement areas such as learning and degree completion.    

In Boost Your Student Ratings by Creating Evidence of Student Learning, author Mary Bart  writes about the need to move beyond student satisfaction in the classroom and toward ways to acquire evidence of student learning.     

Chronicle of Higher Education writer Kelly Field writes about progress reports on progress in access and accountability in higher education five years after the release of the Spellings' Commission Report in her article Spellings Panel Spurred Progress in Some Key Areas but Failed to Remake American Higher Education.    

The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) released an occasional paper titled Gaining Ground: The Role of Institutional Research in Assessing Student Outcomes and Demonstrating Institutional Effectiveness, by J. Fredericks Volkwein.      

Founded in 1970, Middlesex Community College (MCC) is composed of two campuses in Bedford and Lowell, Massachusetts. With an enrollment of over 21,000 credit and non-credit students, MCC provides students with numerous options for degree and certificate programs that broaden opportunities for acquiring a higher education. An important aspect of MCC is its commitment "to promoting student involvement in learning and to providing the academic support that gives students the ability to succeed." Ensuring that students learn and academically succeed is central to the institution's goals. One way in which MCC engages in the promotion of student success is through its Title III Strategies for Success grant.  The college's Title III grant funded work helped secure its selection for participation in the Developing a Community College Student Roadmap program sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, which helps community colleges create intentional academic support programs aligned with selected learning outcomes. Participation in this program and these projects, along with the Presidents' Alliance enable MCC to continue to focus on implementing learning opportunities that are intentional and evaluated for continuous improvement.

Student learning at MCC is guided by a holistic set of institutional student learning outcomes: written and oral communication, critical thinking, quantitative literacy, multicultural and global literacy, social responsibility, and personal and professional development. Efforts to develop these outcomes involved a college-wide committee that drafted 23 10 potential outcomes and narrowed them down to its six current outcomes after acquiring feedback from faculty, staff and students. Assessment of institutional learning outcomes occurs on an annual basis, with assessment focused on only one outcome per year. Elise Martin, Associate Dean of Assessment, shares that it can be more challenging to assess multiple outcomes at once. By assessing one outcome per year, the institution as a whole is able to work in one concerted effort to assess and improve learning in an organized and meaningful way.

As demonstrated by the process of creating institutional student learning outcomes, assessment work at MCC involves the entire college community. In particular, engaging faculty in program- and institutional-level assessment remains important. Faculty at MCC care increasingly enthusiastic about assessment and opportunities to examine how students demonstrate and represent their learning. Strides to engage an entire college community can be successful when assessment is approached as a professional development opportunity rather than an administrative task that must be completed in addition to other position responsibilities. Clea Andreadis, Associate Provost for Instruction and Assessment, further notes that engaging an institution in assessment can require time. She states that earlier believers in assessment need to be patient since it can take more time for some members of a campus to embrace the idea of assessment. Exercising patience and allowing time for faculty, administrators, and students to understand their roles in and value of the assessment process will lead to a community-oriented approach to assessment.

 
The Presidents' Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability continues to grow as we welcome four new institutions this month: Franklin College, Hartwick College, McKendree University, and Wheelock College. Learn more about how each institution is committed to improving student learning by viewing their Action Plans on the the Alliance's website.

Will you be at either of the following events?  The Alliance will be presenting at the following events so be sure to join us!     

• October 31-November 1, 2011: Indiana University-Purdue University Assessment Institute  
• November 16-19, 2011: Association for the Study of Higher Education