An increasingly important trend in academia is the measurement of student learning outcomes.
For that reason, we were interested in seeing the extent to which faculty and staff are presently attempting to measure the outcomes resulting from students’ participation in service-learning activities.
Table V shows the percentages (of those requiring service-learning activities) of faculty and staff who measure a variety of different student learning outcomes. The results demonstrate a wide variation in measurement approaches.
Percentage of Faculty & Staff Utilizing Various Outcomes Measures
| Undergraduate Faculty | Professional Staff | |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced student retention | 11% | 38% |
| Deep learning | 22% | 15% |
| Academic performance | 67% | 38% |
| Leadership skills | 39% | 54% |
| Team-building skills | 56% | 46% |
| Development of networking skills | 28% | 31% |
| Acquisition of jobs and internships | 50% | 54% |
| Other | 6% | 8% |
We also asked whether instructors attempted to track the number of participants and/or the number of hours given to community service and civic engagement activities. Only 21% of undergraduate faculty and 19% of professional staff responded that they did.