Resources

The following resources may be of use to you, your students or community partners when working on Students Learning With Communities Projects.  Please click on the following links to bring you to your area of interest:

Project ideas

Reading material

General guidelines and toolkits

Guidelines on critical reflection

Useful forms and policies – e.g. evaluations forms, Garda vetting procedures

Books, reports, papers and posters by DIT staff, community partners and students

Opportunities (Funding & Networking)

Examples of Modules

 

Project ideas:

If you are stuggling to find how you might adapt your course into a service-learning project check out the syllabi page on Campus Compact. There is another useful searchable database on the US National Service Learning Clearing House site at http://www.servicelearning.org/slice Alternatively don't hesitate to contact us and we can brainstorm some ideas together.

The following table (see here) developed by Eyler et al (2001) is a useful reminder of the personal, academic and social learning that students can gain from Students Learning With Communities projects.

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Reading material:

There is a good overview of the literature on communtity-based learning at http://tilt.colostate.edu/sl/faculty/Is_Service-Learning_Effective.pdf

Another very useful resource is developed by C J Bender, Priscilla Daniels, Josef Lazarus, Luzelle Naude, Kalawathie Sattar (2006) 'Service-Learning in the Curriculum: A Resource for Higher Education Institutions' and can be accessed online http://www.che.ac.za/documents/d000121/index.php  

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General guidelines and toolkits:

We recently produced a series of information sheets which you can download to adapt and use as necessary. These information sheets are useful for lecturers, students and community parnters interested in getting involved in a Students Learning With Communities project; we hope you will find them helpful.

*Thanks to Sean O'Fearghail, DIT Engineering Lecturer for his contribution to these information sheets.

Sean O'Fearghail has also produced his own Community Partner Guidelines for the DIT engineering module DT089 in Networking Technologies. Since these guidelines specifically refer to one particular module you may find them useful as an example of how the information sheets above can be adapated to suit your course needs.

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Guidelines on critical reflection:

If you are new to incorporating critical reflection into your courses below are some resources and links to guide you in this.

  • We have deleveloped a mind-map (click here) to help with preparation for your reflection classes and reflection assessment.
  • Here also are two rubrics that can help you with assessing reflection. The first (click here) which is developed by Hawai'i Campus Compact and the second (click here) was created by Dr David Burton. 
  • The following outlines two models that your students can use to guide their reflection: Gibb's Reflective Cycle and Rolfe et al Framework for Reflexive Practice
  • You might also like to refer to the pre-project questionnaires and post project evaluation forms below that you can also use as reflection tools.
  • You might wish you use the following short questionnaire with your class to help them identify their learning styles, go to pages 36-49 of the document: What is Effective Learning? 
  • Here also is another good link here to finding out about learning stlyes.
  • This article by Jenny Moon provides examples exploring issues of quality and depth in reflection: Defining and improving the quality of reflective learning
  • The following may also be a useful guide of the type of reflection activites that you can do. They are based on work by Julie Hatcher, Robert Bringle and Diane Sloan.

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Useful forms and policies – e.g. evaluations forms, Garda vetting procedures:

Garda vetting: It may be a requirement for your students to complete a Garda Vetting Form, particularly if they are working with vunerable adults or with children. You should check with your community partner if they require your students to be vetted. If you have any questions relating to Garda vetting, including getting a copy of the latest form please contact Frank Costello in DIT Admissions on extension 3304. Please note that it can take up to 12 weeks for these forms to be processed which may delay your project starting if they are not sent in on time.

Pre-project Questionnaires and Evaluation Forms: We have created three 'pre-project' questionnaires and 'post-project' evaluation forms for your use to help you evaluate your Students Learning With Communities projects. The forms are created for students, for community partners and for lecturers / project co-ordinators. We hope you will find them useful, please do adapt as necessary, and we would invite you to share them with us when completed if you felt that was appropriate. We will be improving them as we go as we receive feedback from you on them.

There is also a really useful self-assessment tool for staff working on SLWC projects developed by Robert Shumer - see Shumer, Robert. Shumer’s Self-Assessment for Service-Learning Scale: Third Year Revised. Scotts Valley, CA: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2000. 

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Books, reports, papers and posters by DIT staff, community partners and students:

The books/reports/papers below have been written by DIT staff, community partners and students about their own projects.

You may find the following poster examples useful for any work you are doing in Students Learning With Communities.

  • General SLWC Poster: created by Students Learning With Communities to present at DIT's Showcase for Teaching and Learning 2009.
  • Law in Society Poster: created by Dr Mary Rogan,  Assistant Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies, Department of Law, DIT for the 7th Galway International Symposium on Higher Education - Design for Learning, Curriculum and Assessment in Higher Education.
  • Mindmapping the Challenges Poster: created and presented by Students Learning With Communities at the Living Knowledge Conference, Belfast 2009 

*We are constantly adding to and amending these resources and would welcome any feedback on them. If you have any useful resources that you would value sharing and including on this site do send them onto us for consideration.

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Opportunities (Funding & Networking):

Networking: We are now members of the Living Knowledge Network and the Talloires Network. These networks have resources that you may find useful so do check them out. 

Funding:

1. The Programme for Students Learning With Communities has seed-funding available for four staff (of up to €1,500 each) to develop new Students Learning With Communities projects. You can download the application form here which you will need to send back to us by October 1st 2010. 

2. Please also advise your community partners that in order to assist them in collaborating on such projects, the Programme for Students Learning With Communities is inviting them to submit details of their anticipated expenses on planned projects for this academic year. The application form can be downloaded here which they will also need to send back to us by October 1st 2010.    

Also we are compiling a database of funding opportunities for Students Learning With Communities projects. If you would like more information on possible sources of funding please contact us.

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Examples of Modules:

Template Module which can be used by DIT staff/project co-ordinators to develop a module which comprises entirely of, or includes, a community-based learning element/project. The gaps in the template are for staff/coordinators to fill in.  

30 ECT Credit Module: Service Learning and Civic Engagement. Module Author: Ciaran O'Leary, School of Computing, DIT 

5 ECT Credit Module: Information Literacy Project 1. Module Author: Sean O'Fearghail, School of Electronic and Communications Enginneering, DIT 

5 ECT Credit Module: Information Literacy Project 2. Module Author: Sean O'Fearghail, School of Electronic and Communications Enginneering, DIT 

 

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