Putting the Service into Service Learning: A Report on a Survey of CS Faculty

Service learning is an experiential pedagogy in which students learn through providing services or products for community partners. Computer and information science students can develop valuable products for community organizations. However, while service learning is shown to serve students and has potential to serve the field's diversity goals, community partners' needs are often not served. We explored this asymmetry using an exploratory survey. Faculty from across the U.S. were able to describe learning goals for students, including how they were assessed. In contrast, fewer than half of respondents had explicit partner goals; partner goals were often not assessed. Also, most respondents judged reaching student goals as more important than partner goals, with about 25% of respondents seeing benefits to partners as only a bonus. Faculty justified their choices by appealing to their mission as educators. Yet for a nontrivial partnership commitment under condition of scarce resources, the community partner may be seen as being taken advantage of, which may explain why some respondents have difficulty finding or keeping partners. Further, faculty may not accomplish civic duty goals, since students may tacitly learn that community organizations' needs are secondary. To aid faculty in making decisions and better integrating community partners' needs, we offer advice from survey respondents.