Service-learning is a curriculum-based, "credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of curricular content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility ."*

A curricular offering that provides formal academic credit qualifies as service-learning if all of the following is true:

• Students engage in service that is valuable to a community through activities that directly contribute to student achievement of identified learning outcomes related to the academic curriculum, and documentation of the value and impact of the service on the community is obtained from the community.

and

• Students develop an understanding of the relationships between their service and the learning outcomes of the academic curriculum.  Such understanding may be demonstrated through reflection, analysis, or proceeding in writing, discussion or oral presentation.  Students connect the specific activities involved in the service with the concepts, principles, and theories of one or more academic disciplines.

and

• Students learn how they can actively contribute to the welfare of a diverse, democratic society.  This learning can take different forms; for instance:  

                      ♦ recognizing how a particular academic discipline or profession can meet important needs of society;

                      ♦ fulfilling civic responsibility through community effort; or

                      ♦ developing skills or understanding that will enhance students' contribution as responsible citizens
                         and  community   members.

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* Definition adopted from R.G. Bringle and J.A. Hatcher, A Service-Learning Curriculum for Faculty, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 1995, 2: 112-122, and revised to broaden the definition from “course-based” to “curriculum-based” service-learning experiences. Note that "curriculum-based" service-learning may refer to curricular offerings such as traditional on-campus classroom courses, elearning, cooperative learning experiences, internships, student fellowships, student research projects, study abroad/study away, and other curricular offerings that meet the criteria established in the definition.

Adopted November 2006