Community-Based Service and Learning Project Analyst

Community-Based Learning

Community-based learning occurs when community engagement is integrated into academic coursework as part of the curriculum. The CBL experience can take many different forms depending on class learning objectives and community partners. It has always been, and will likely continue to be, difficult to assess these types of courses and the impact on students given their subjective nature of assessing growth in community engagement skills. However, starting in Fall 2013, the Center for Student Leadership first began using surveys as a form of assessment for community-based learning (CBL) courses. After collecting data, the next goal is to use statistical tools to analyze the results. The main question is as follows: How does CBL courses, and therefore the community-engagement experience, affect participating students?

Responsibilities

• Collected and organized Likert Scale survey results utilizing SurveyMonkey and Excel and created a long-term data set that is accessible to, and can be built upon by, future CBL staff
• Analyzed online assessment data using R and created additional assessment tools that did not utilize Likert Scale and compared results
• Collaborated with individual professors for each class participating, including sending out survey links, collecting data, and presenting results
• Presented results of online assessment data analysis project to community engagement participants and faculty in April 2015 and facilitated dialogue regarding findings and future improvements ( Presentation Slides )

Software and Tools

• R / RStudio
• Excel
• SurveyMonkey