Assessing Service Learning Reflections

Assessing Service Learning ReflectionsEngineering is a discipline that contributes much to society. However, most engineeringundergraduates do not see this aspect. Engineers can, and do, provide much service to thecommunity and world. A service-learning course in engineering helps students to beaware of their personal, as well as the global, contribution of engineers. We have initiatedthe Engineer of 2020” program, which must be completed by all undergraduate students.One of the six potential criteria for this program is service learning. Service-learningcourses can highlight the opportunities available for engineering undergraduate students.The objective of developing a course that provides a service learning experience is toexpand the student perspective that engineers can have a positive impact on theircommunity and the world. This paper describes a service learning course, presents themotivation and content of the course. The paper then focuses on the structured reflectioncomponent of the class. This paper presents the motivation, content, and the assessmentprocess of such a course.