Engaged Service-Learning and the Experiential Learning Requirement at UGA: A Case Study

How do a large public research university, a college within that university, individual departments, and faculty members respond to a campus-wide mandate for experiential learning? Beginning in the Fall of 2016, all incoming undergraduate students at the University of Georgia (UGA) will be required to fulfill an experiential learning requirement prior to graduation. UGA defines experiential learning as “the development of knowledge, skills, abilities, values, behaviors, and attitudes via first-hand experiences outside of traditional classroom structures” within a domestic or global setting. With this initiative, UGA intends to become one of the largest public universities in the nation to provide each of its students with high impact, experiential learning opportunities intended to enhance academic performance and better prepare them for graduate school or careers. Although the university has hired a Director of Experiential Learning, reporting to the Office of the Vice President for Instruction, to bolster stewardship of the new experiential learning effort, the specific ways and courses for students to fulfill the requirement are being developed and approved by each of UGA’s schools and colleges serving undergraduates; academic service-learning courses will likely be the most frequent method by which this requirement will be met. For this presentation, we provide a case study of how Experiential Learning requirement is being conceptualized and implemented at several different levels: university-wide, then by one college--the College of Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS)—and the perspective of individual faculty members and departments nested within that setting. FACS operationalizes experiential learning through domestic or international study programs, internships, undergraduate research, service-learning, and directed study. Of these, service-learning is both the most frequent and most emphasized in FACS, building upon existing strengths. As a part of the plan to meet the experiential learning requirement, FACS has identified an initial 16 service-learning courses across 5 departments within the college. In this presentation, we overview the development and implementation of the university’s experiential learning requirement, campus-wide as well as within one particular college (FACS). The presentation shares specific examples of engaged service-learning from multiple courses across different departments, student learning outcomes, impact in the community, and the challenges experienced. Two faculty at FACS who are experienced with service-learning, and have taken part in the UGA Service-Learning Fellows faculty development program, describe the service-learning courses that they teach (in human development and disability, and in adolescent development) and how these courses align with this ‘learning by doing’ focus newly emphasized by UGA. In addition, anticipated benefits to the community and to student learning as well as the expected challenges to implementing service-learning courses to meet the new experiential learning requirement will be shared and discussed. Finally, the presentation will engage audience members in considering what lessons from such a university-wide initiative can be transferred to their own settings