Community-Based Learning with On-Campus Partners

There are many good reasons for taking the time to offer this type of learning experience (Kuh, O’Donnell & Reed, 2013; Lenton et al.; Lombardi, 2007). Working with a community partner brings students into meaningful contact with future employers, clients, and colleagues. Students experience higher levels of engagement and take a deeper approach to learning when they apply what they are studying to address an authentic problem. They are better able to apply theory to the specific project and have a deeper understanding of the subject matter. They can work on authentic problems relevant to their discipline and reflect on that learning in a safe and supportive environment. Community-based learning can improve critical thinking, problem solving, presentation, analytical, teamwork, and interpersonal skills.

Having students work on an authentic problem for a community partner is not without its challenges. Lenton et al. (2014) outlined a number of these challenges including a higher workload for students and instructors compared to traditional course offerings. Instructors may require extra support for the project, such as ethics and data sharing agreement, community partnership development, project management, etc.

Working on authentic problems may be chaotic and confusing. Students may become frustrated with the process and higher workload. Students may be unclear about the learning goals when compared to more traditional courses. Engaging students in a reflective process is necessary to help students recognize the learning that is taking place.

Any course requires advance planning. This is especially true when collaborating with a community partner. Course planning involves shifting the focus from what the students need to know in their discipline to equipping students to help a community partner. In addition to the course content, instructors design learning experiences where both the student and the community partner benefit.

Working with an on-campus community partner can be a good place to start for community-based learning as they are located in close proximity to students and are often well-aware of university student experiences. Examples of on-campus partners include individuals from the Writing and Communication Centre, Student Affairs, living learning communities, residence life coordinators, and librarians to name a few. Here are some best practices:

• Meet with the community partner to discuss their needs, expectations, and potential projects.
• Ensure that the collaboration and the project benefit both the students and the community partner.
• Clearly outline commitments for the community partner, for you (the course instructor), and for the students.
• Provide a detailed schedule of events with dates and times set well in advance.
• Consider a team approach to designing and delivering the course. Identify who will be involved in the course design and delivery. Consult with these individuals and schedule their time in advance. Meaningful collaboration will help strengthen the learning experiences for students.

If you are conducting research about community-based learning, UWaterloo expects instructors to be the proxy for their students, and to have procured ethics permission for human subjects research in the term before a course is taught. If you have a research project planned, you may have to complete this paperwork in advance of the course. See Office of Research Ethics.

Authentic learning opportunities rarely have a single solution or one “right way.” The challenge for instructors is to find the balance between providing students with a project that encourages discovery and multiple solutions, while ensuring students are given enough guidance and structure to tackle the activity. Here are some additional tips:

• Provide structure by creating a detailed course outline and class-by-class plan.
• Define outcomes for each class and have a process to move the project along.
• Ensure that each in-class activity clearly contributes to a necessary next step in the project.
• Define expectations and consequences to ensure activities are completed at an acceptable level and in a timely manner.
• Include smaller assignments throughout the term which scaffold and contribute to the project.
• Schedule frequent and timely formative feedback throughout the course so each student knows where they stand at each stage of the project.

Instructors and students are often learning alongside each other since these projects can be more open-ended. While this is where deep learning can happen, it can also be disorienting for student and instructor alike. Prepare to learn along with your students. Your role shifts from “instructor” to “facilitator.” Students will come up with solutions or approaches that you have never thought of. That is a good thing, but it also means relinquishing a certain amount of control, being flexible, and adapting to circumstances. These are valuable skills to model for your students.  

Provide opportunities for students to experience perspectives, expressions, skills, and learning approaches which differ from their own. Embed opportunities to examine the problem from different theoretical, practical, and interdisciplinary perspectives into the project. One way to do this is to have students work in groups.

• Keep groups in the 4-6 size range.
• Encourage students to create teams based on the identified skills sets or pre-determine the teams.
• Help students identify the roles necessary to complete the project.
• Emphasize this project cannot be completed last minute. Success depends on the collaboration and cooperation of each group member.

Hold each student accountable for completing all pieces of the project. The group can then use each team member’s contribution to develop the best solution for the next stage of the project. This helps reinforce the social and collaborative nature of the project. Exposure to multiple solutions helps students develop a deeper understanding of the complexities in their discipline.

See the CTE Teaching Tips: Making Group Contracts, Group Work: Assignment of Roles

Early in the term, introduce the community partner and the related project to your students. This reinforces the importance of working directly with community members when creating a community-based project. This also creates the opportunity to ask the community partner about their needs and expectations directly and reduces the risk of making false assumptions. Students experience what it is like to work within the culture of the discipline, and the community partner is provided with a potential viable solution to an authentic problem. Consider inviting on-campus partners to facilitate in-class activities. This introduces your students to other support people on-campus who can help them during and after the course.

In the first week of the course, let your students know that this course is not “business as usual.” Highlight in your course outline, the first class, and throughout the term that the course is not lecture-based, and does not have the typical mid-term, essay, final exam, or textbook-driven format. Use the language of the discipline to describe the collaborative project and invite students to consider themselves as members of the discipline rather than “students trying to get a course mark.”

Explicitly outline and describe the relevance the project. Explain how the project mirrors the work done by members of the discipline. Emphasize that this is an applied project, which involves working in a social context where they will work with others to complete a project, solve a problem, and/or address an issue.

Recognize that this may be a new type of learning experience, and thus it may be confusing and disruptive for students. It means moving them out of their comfort level and into an area where deep learning can occur. Assure them that, while the solution is open-ended, they have the structure and support needed to help them complete the project.

• Explain that the project involves inter-related, complex tasks which must be completed in a timely manner during the term.
• Emphasize that each task contributes to the next step and each must be completed at an appropriately high level to move forward with the project.
• Review the activities and deadlines scheduled throughout the course
• Draw attention to the consequences of not completing activities in a timely and appropriate manner.

Use formative assessment methods which support and reward both the process and final product. If possible, require students to complete work at an appropriate level before moving to the next stage of the project. This means providing them with feedback and the opportunity to use that feedback to complete the project to an accepted standard.

Provide opportunities for students to assess their existing knowledge and receive suggestions for improvement. Most important, give them the opportunity to incorporate the feedback they’ve been given to help them improve future performance. (See Jill Tomasson Goodwin’s Tips and Tricks[JB1] , as well as CTE tip sheets Learner-centred assessment, Methods for assessing group work , Responding to writing assignments)

Consider providing feedback and marks based on the process such as professionalism (was the submission received on time with all the components of the assignment addressed?), effort (how much and how well did the student incorporate feedback? How many rounds of feedback did it take?), and improvement (from first to last version, how much better, more professional, more original, etc. was the submission?)

Use in-class time for project work where you circulate throughout the classroom providing feedback and suggestions to groups as they work on the designated activity for that day. Help students understand how they can each contribute to the project and how to connect the various pieces. It can be helpful to have students submit deliverables prior to the class to ensure that each student has prepared for the in-class group activity.

Provide feedback to the individual or group contributions online and in advance of the in-class time so that groups work productively together during the class time and you can identify where possible challenges exist. Using a ‘flipped classroom model’ can help provide the structure students need to address the open-ended nature of project and provide the opportunity to make best use of your expertise during the class time. For more information see CTE Teaching Tip: Course design: planning a flipped class.

Schedule regular in-class opportunities for students to showcase their development of competence to their classmates. Students see and respond to each other’s work. Not only will they learn from each other, but also knowing that they will be presenting to their peers enhances accountability and motivation. Presenting to their classmates within the safe environment of the classroom prepares them for the final presentation they will present to the community partner. As much as possible, have the presentations be typical of the types of presentations that are used within the discipline. You may also consider a public showcase that is open to the broader university community.

Provide a rubric to help students plan for their presentation- particularly to help them prepare for the presentation to the community partner.(See the CTE Tip Sheet Rubrics: useful assessment tools)

DAC 300 is 12-week reflexive, theoretically-informed, practice-based course in User Experience Design (the art of understanding, designing, and creating an "end-to-end" experience of technology for users). The course design choices are based on a practical application of knowledge – facilitated inside, and tested outside, the classroom for an actual client with a pressing need.

Professor Jill Tomasson Goodwin and her third-year Digital Arts Communication class consulted with UWaterloo’s Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment department to design an augmented reality version of a tour brochure. To complete the project, teams of undergraduate students drew upon their knowledge of user experience design, interviewed high school students, and then iteratively prototyped a range of augmented reality experiences, all designed to engage and inform students as they visit and explore the campus. The project and technology have been so successful that UW will use augmented reality to enhance other recruitment publications.

One example of an on-campus community partner is the Sustainability Office and the Living Lab program:

“Through the Sustainability Living Lab program, the University of Waterloo aims to support students and faculty in using the campus as a model for researching, testing, and applying innovative approaches to addressing sustainability challenges. The recommendations and solutions developed here have the potential to improve the campus and build the sustainability leadership that can help transform the world” (University of Waterloo, 2024).

Here are past projects for inspiration.

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the CTE Support page to find the most relevant staff member to contact.

Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are. Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Kuh, G. D. (2008). Excerpt from “High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter.” Association of American Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/leap/hip.cfm

Kuh, G. D., O’Donnell, K., & Reed, S. (2013). Ensuring Quality and Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Lenton, R., Sidhu, R., Kaur, S., Conrad, M., Kennedy, B., Munro, Y., & Smith, R. (2014). Community Service Learning and Community-Based Learning as Approaches to Enhancing University Service Learning. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

Lombardi, M. M. (2007). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An Overview. Educause learning initiative,1(2007), 1-12. http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/authentic-learning-21st-century-overview

Integrative and Applied Learning Value Rubric (AAC&U)

University of Waterloo. (2024). Sustainability living lab.

Tomasson Goodwin, Jill. 6 Tips and 10 Tricks to Facilitate Classroom-based Experiential Learning (Word document)

This Creative Commons license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Community-Based Learning. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

This Creative Commons license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Community-Based Learning. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.