Course-Based Partnerships
CBL Courses have the benefit of connecting community partners with students who are engaged in learning about a topic relevant to their service (the course topic). Student reliability also tends to be good since their grade is connected to their service work.
One drawback of course-based CBL is that the work is limited to the 15-week semester schedule. While the occasional students who make a meaningful connection with their experiences are able to continue working with their community partners beyond the confines of the course requirement, the reality is that most Mason students are combining school with employment and family responsibilities, so continued volunteering is not a possibility – as much as many of them would like it to be. For some community partners, the training needed to prepare a student for service work is not a good fit for only a 15-week commitment.
The Basic Model
Helpful Practices for Working with CBL Courses
Process and Procedures
Evaluation of Service-Learner
PSYC 327: Psychology Students Apply their Learning through Service
