How will you match or connect students with specific service-learning opportunities?

Connecting students with specific service-learning opportunities is one of the challenges of teaching a service-learning course. Faculty must do a substantial amount of legwork before the semester begins in order to establish the parameters for the project, identify community partners, and begin framing the issues that students will consider and the service in which they will participate.

One important consideration is whether participating in service-learning will be an optional part of the course or a required course component. When service-learning is required, faculty members need to be attuned to potential religious, political, or moral conflicts for individual students

There are several options for matching students with specific opportunities:

Require each student to identify a service-learning project that matches his/her interests. The faculty member should give the student specific parameters for the project, and should incorporate regular reporting to monitor students' progress. This approach may be most effective with advanced students who are already experienced in the subject matter and well-connected to the community.

Provide students with a list of possible service-learning activities, and have them choose one. This approach takes into account students' specific interests, but provides them with a more limited range of options. This approach may be most effective in short classes (e.g., Maymester and summer courses) and in situations where students are less familiar with the subject matter or the community.

Assign students to a specific project or activity. This approach gives the faculty member the most control over the student's service-learning experience, but may also make the student most uncomfortable. This approach may be most effective when the faculty member wants to push students to try an activity outside their comfort zone or to reexamine certain attitudes, ideas, and beliefs.

Have students fill out an "information sheet" with questions related to the service-learning placement. The students' answers may help a faculty member place students in service-learning situations where they feel more comfortable and have a greater chance of being successful. An information sheet might include logistical questions such as, "Do you have a car?" as well as more subjective questions such as, "How comfortable do you feel working with someone of the opposite sex?"

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