Group Communication

I teach a small group communication course in which the Service-Learning presents an experiential group learning situation. Each group is required to select a community partner, develop, complete and present their project within a 10 week period of time. Service-Learning is mandatory as is working in a group. Believe it or not, many students can't believe group work is part of the "group communication" course and find the "group thing" is more objectionable than the S-L requirement.

Within the first few weeks students do in class exercises as well as a mini-project that has all the components they will utilize in their original project, however, on a smaller scale. The scaffolding really works to ease their fears and establish relationships in the course room.
I explain that in order to be productive citizens, we have a responsibility to provide stewardship. Maybe I have been sipping the Communion wine too many years, but I believe mandatory S-L will certainly not kill them and may, in fact, enlighten them. I reiterate that service learning IS NOT charity, it is an opportunity to utilize skills and knowledge to acquire additional skills and knowledge from one of the university's community partners. More importantly, the project requires a reciprocal exchange of human capital that leads to the acquisition of valuable cultural and social capital.

As far as everyone in the class participating in the S-L, they do or they drop the course. I usually do two assessments at the beginning of the course; the MBTI and Strengths Quest. I have group members identify their personality characteristics, strengths and weaknesses which help serve as a guide in selecting projects that are within the groups' interests,
abilities and values as well as personal and time constraints. Often I have students whose strengths are not working on a site, rather, they interact in different ways. For example, one group worked with a non-profit organization that developed health and fitness fairs for
children. While four of the five members worked closely with the community at large during the final event, the fifth student worked with the organization's marketing team to create and distribute materials to three local school districts. The student had extremely good writing and translating skills which were valuable to the whole project yet did not put her in a situation in which she felt uncomfortable. The S-L must help the student to meet the student learning outcomes (SLOs) of the course otherwise it isn't "learning." In this case, the SLOs were met by all the students within the group by leveraging their personal resources, knowledge and skills.

The feedback from the community is generally very positive and my students have found new avenues and opened doors for employment after graduation.