Service-Learning Integrated throughout a College of Engineering (SLICE): Implementation

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

Abstract

This department level reform project will revitalize an entire college of engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell through the energizing pedagogy of service-learning. Service-learning is the integration of academic subject matter with service to the community in credit-bearing courses, with key elements including reciprocity, reflection, coaching, community voice in projects. Service-learning (SL) has been shown to be effective in a large number of cognitive and affective measures, including critical thinking and tolerance for diversity, and leads to better knowledge of course subject matter, cooperative learning, recruitment of underrepresented groups in engineering, retention of students, and citizenship, as well as helping meet the wellknown ABET 2000 criteria (a)-(k). The thesis here is that SL spread throughout the core curriculum will be more effective than one intensive course, that a mixture of required and elective SL is more effective than either one or the other, and that SL could result in less coursework time than traditional programs satisfying ABET 2000 criteria. Therefore, service-learning will be integrated into a broad array of courses so that students will be exposed to SL in every semester in the core curriculum in each of the five engineering departments. This project builds on a long history of a variety of core courses with SL within different departments in engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, particularly through projects in assistive technology, and global sustainable infrastructure development. Thirty-six faculty members are implementing, or have committed to integrating, service-learning in 40 courses; in the first semester of the planning phase, over five hundred engineering students participated in SL projects in required courses. Initial steps have been taken towards developing and using appropriate assessment tools. More faculty recruitment and training, community partnering, course modification, a staff SL director to link faculty and students with the community, course release time for faculty, SL minigrants, assessment, and dissemination of results are needed to propel this SL initiative to full implementation. Experienced higher education researchers at Brandeis University will serve as an independent assessment team. Intellectual merit: To link individual course objectives with service-based hands-on projects which meet the real needs of a community, whether local or international, requires considerable creativity and intellectual rigor. No single undergraduate degree program is known to have SL in at least one required course for every student every semester, much less for five degree programs in a whole college, even though the research indicates such a program would be more effective for students, faculty, and community on a number of dimensions. Development of assessment tools for such a broad approach is challenging and will be focused particularly on faculty and community, where there is a dearth of information in the literature. The impact of such a systemic approach on student interest, attitudes, retention and learning should be of genuine interest to the engineering education community. Broader impact: The implementation phase of this unique study is expected to have significant impact on students and faculty (and the diversity of their makeup), the institution, and community on a variety of measures. The assessment protocol and instruments are expected to be useful for many institutions. The results from this study should apply to almost any college of engineering and should spread beyond into other colleges within universities.