Willamette University

Community Service Learning

Tools and Resources

CSL has collected a variety of templates, worksheets and links to aid you in the development of your service-learning course. Our resources are organized under the following categories: (Click a link to proceed to that category.)

Course Planning & Syllabus Development

  • Faculty Toolkit for Service-Learning in Higher Education (pdf)

    This is your one-stop guide to developing your service learning course. With guidelines, best practices, and a wealth of sample documents, the Faculty Toolkit provides top-notch guidance in course development areas including:

    Establishing Community-Campus Partnerships for Service-Learning
    Establishing and Assessing Course Objectives, Learner Outcomes, and Competencies
    Planning Course Instruction and Activities
    Building Course Infrastructure
    Sustaining a Service-Learning Course

  • SLICE (Example lesson plans, syllabi, and project ideas)

    SLICE is an easy-to-search database full of hundreds of high-quality service-learning lesson plans, syllabi, and project ideas. Lesson plans are submitted by educators and service-learning practitioners. You can even submit your own documents to expand the database!

    SLICE is a resource of the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

  • Campus Compact Syllabi Library

    The Campus Compact Resource Library for faculty contains hundreds of Service-Learning syllabi organized by field. Worth exploring if you are looking for service models or course integration ideas!

  • Course Development Worksheet (doc)

    This document from the Northwest Indian College Center for Service Learning provides an excellent prompt as you develop your service-learning course. It guides faculty through consideration of aspects such as course and student learning objectives, preparation, reflection, curricular integration and other important factors. Worth taking a look at for any faculty member considering developing a service-learning-course

    Community/Student Agreements

  • Sample Community-Campus Partnership Agreement/MOU (doc)

    This Partnership Agreement/MOU from the Indiana University School of Dentistry provides an easy example for and formal arrangement you develop with a community partner. Feel free to modify this template to fit your needs as you develop your course. For guidance in developing your own Partnership Agreement, please reference the Higher Education Toolkit for a development worksheet!

  • Partnership Agreements Worksheet (doc)

    This worksheet can be used as a guide as you work with your community partner to develop a partnership agreement. This document follows the format of the Sample Community-Campus Partnership Agreement/MOU found above, and is adapted from a worksheet found in the Higher Education Toolkit available in the "Course Planning & Syllabus Development" section of this page.

  • Student Service Contract (doc)

    A bit This contract provides a template for guiding student behavior and expectations related to their service opportunity. This contract also provides an opportunity for students to "pre-flect" on their service by setting their own goals and expectations related to their service.

    Hours Tracking

  • Student Hours Documentation Form (doc)

    We welcome you to provide this hours documentation form to your students for use in your Service Learning Course. This form records time in/out, hours spent, responsibilities, and requires a site supervisor signature (to be signed after each shift or at the end of the semester).

  • Student Placement Tracker for Faculty (xls)

    This Excel spreadsheet is intended to assist faculty in keeping track of students' service-learning progress throughout the semester. Information that can be tracked includes student contact information, the contact information of students' service sites and site supervisors, as well as service hours submitted by students. Formulas within the sheet can highlight students who have reached the service hours requirement set forth by the instructor.

    Reflection

  • A Manual for Facilitating Reflection

    This resource helps you to understand the role of reflection in Service-Learning courses, as well as your role as a facilitator. A number of ideas for reflection activities are included within, including the "What? So what? Now what?" activity commonly used on the Willamette campus. For more reflection ideas, we encourage you to explore the Higher Education Service-Learning Toolkit found above!

  • ABCs of Reflection Guide (doc)

    This document is intended to serve as a concise guide to Welch's ABCs of Reflection model (full article below). This guide provides additional sample prompts, as well as descriptions of the ABC categories that can be repurposed for use in describing the model to students.

  • ABCs of Reflection

    This article describes the principles of Welch's ABC method of carrying out and evaluating student reflection. The ABC model encourages students to consider (a) what students learn (i.e., cognition), (b) what and how students feel (i.e., affect), and (c) how students behave before, during, and after learning experiences (i.e., behavior). This document is linked from another school; in the event that this link no longer works, please contact the CSL Office at service@willamette.edu.

    Additional Resources

  • Sample Forms and Templates (National Service Learning Clearinghouse)

    The National Service Learning Clearinghouse provides hundreds of sample forms and templates available for modification to fit your needs. Resource Categories include:

    Agreements/Contracts
    Evaluation/Assessment Documents
    Lesson Planning Templates
    Policies/Guidelines
    SurveysTimesheets
    Workplans

  • Mark O. Hatfield Library

    Willamette's Mark O. Hatfield Library contains an array of service-learning materials. Some titles include:

    Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices (Barbara Jacoby and Associates; foreword by Thomas Ehrlich)
    Democratic Education in an Age of Difference: Redefining Citizenship in Higher Education (Richard Guarasci, Grant H. Cornwell, and Associates)
    Service Learning (Edited by Joan Schine)
    Academic Service Learning: A Pedagogy of Action and Reflection (Robert A. Rhoads, Jeffery P.F. Howard, Editors)
    Service-Learning: A Movement's Pioneers Reflect on its Origins, Practice, and Future (Timothy K. Stanton, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Nadinne I. Cruz; foreword by Goodwin Liu)
    Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? (Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles, Jr.; foreword by Alexander W. Astin)
    Leading Academic Change: Essential Roles for Department Chairs (Ann F. Lucas and Associates; foreword by R. Eugene Rice)
    Service Learning for Youth Empowerment and Social Change (Edited by Jeff Claus and Curtis Ogden)
    Developing and Implementing Service-Learning Programs (Mark Canada, Bruce W. Speck, Editors)

  • Community Service Learning Office Library

    Resources are available in hardcopy in the Community Service Learning office and can be checked out via the Director of Community Service Learning. Come by our office and browse the literature in the designated service-learning section of our Community Service Learning library! Some of our titles include:

    AAHE "Service-Learning in the Disciplines"
    A monograph series dedicated to promoting service-learning in several disciplines.
    Michigan Journal of Community Serivce-Learning
    The leading peer-reviewed journal of academic service-learning. Fall 2000, Fall 2001, Spring 2002.