Community Engaged Learning brought social action into the curriculum. Students worked together on real world briefs to solve challenges faced by local social impact partners. This was an opportunity to bring their theoretical learning to life, shifting from knowledge receivers to idea generators whilst making change.
Why we do it
Community Engaged Learning has a double benefit for both student participants, and the community partners we work with. Students develop critical awareness, benefit from improved wellbeing, build key skills for life and demonstrate improved student experience whilst the local community benefits from new perspectives, added capacity and community cohesion.
Student Hubs’ expertise in working with both students, and the communities, means we can add capacity to universities and academics through Community Engaged Learning. We work closely with academics, partners and students creating bespoke experiences for each group.
Students receive training and support throughout their module including topics such as project management, problem solving, and critical thinking
Community partners are supported to work effectively with students by developing useful briefs and implementing recommendations
Academics have dedicated support to build community-based learning into their course in a way that is consistent with the institution’s goals
Working with real clients makes the whole project more interesting and serious. Knowing that you can use this on your CV is another motivating aspect. Getting this type of responsibility as university students really gives us the chance to show how professional and dedicated we can be.
Community Engaged Learning Student
How it works
Community Engaged Learning projects are wide ranging. We were able to co-design a suitable format and find projects, briefs and community partners appropriate for most courses. Projects are typically research, consultancy or practical in nature, with briefs often targeted at specific functions e.g. marketing and communications, data analysis or design.
The steps we followed as part of our Community Engaged Learning programme included:
- We work with academics to identify learning outcomes, assessments and target skills for students
- Together with the academic, we co-create a Community Engaged Learning format that meets identified outcomes. For example research skills, or consultancy experience
- We reach out to their Hub community partners, sourcing the local organisations who will support the module
- We work with the community partner to design appropriate briefs and projects following the academics’ guidance
- We plan extra support and training students will need for the project. This includes training, seminar sessions, workshops and additional drop-in sessions
- We co-deliver the programme following with evaluation and reflection on student and community outcomes
The initiatives have been really great for the students. They have introduced real-world learning into their programme and have enabled us to deliver a more diverse and authentic learning experience. They have also given us the opportunity to bring new faces … into the classroom thus giving the students a better experience and a better awareness of their employability skills. They have also benefited from the fact that their efforts are contributing to wider communities. Students said … that contributing to the community made their activities meaningful.
Community Engaged Learning Academic
Service Learning: Accessible Opportunities for Meeting Student and Community Need
September 14, 2020
Service Learning: Addressing Participation Barriers With ‘Real-World’ Learning
September 2, 2020
why did universities deliver community engaged learning in collaboration with student hubs?
What our university partners valued about Community Engaged Learning includes:
- Supporting academic capacity and buy-in for graduate outcomes strategies. As many universities deploy bold new graduate outcomes and employability strategies for students, it can be challenging for academics to adapt to these changes and hold the capacity to build in these new practices into their teaching and learning approach. In our approach where we handle the community partner sourcing, co-design the module approach, and provide additional student support, we add capacity to pilot activities and enable academics to understand the processes, what’s involved, and the impact on both student experience and the community partner. We aim to build advocates for this practice with tailored support which can later be internalised or handed back to the academic once local links have been established.
- Reaching small businesses and community organisations. Our approach is specifically designed around social action and to enable the smallest community businesses or grassroots organisations to participate. These organisations can be overlooked or struggle to engage with other university offerings, and Community Engaged Learning offers a pipeline to introduce new organisations to what your university can provide, and diversify your knowledge exchange activities locally.
- Building internal staff capacity and expertise. Community Engaged Learning reached over 600+ students at its peak at Kingston University, and piloting in-curriculum activities to build an evidence-base can be challenging. Partnership with us enables your institution to kickstart this delivery, build local connections, and use our tried and tested formula. Our external strategy means if you want to internalise the work, we can help – ask us about handover and quality assurance support.
Community Engaged Learning was part of our ‘Build’ and ‘Embed’ framework.
Student Hubs’ partnership has added more meat to the bone and more substance to the work we do at Kingston. It has complemented what we do, which can be very dispersed. For example with the KEF and our evidence in putting it together, it’s been helpful for case study development of tangible examples of how we work at a civic level and across the region, through in-curricular and extracurricular engagement with students. There are relationships which have crossed with organisations we would have worked with anyway, but also in bringing in organisations we wouldn’t otherwise have reached through Student Hubs’ partnership.
Ali Orr, Director of Student Development and Graduate Success, Kingston University