Lessons Learned While Developing a Community-Based Learning Initiative

With the increasing emphasis on civic engagement through community involvement, educators are faced with the task of developing effective strategies to integrate service-learning and other community-based initiatives into their courses. Much research has been published on the different types of service opportunities, the benefits of experiential learning, and the application of experiential learning. Little research, however, documents how to begin the process of incorporating a form of experiential learning other than service-learning into the curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to describe five lessons learned while developing a course designed to introduce students to the applied aspects of sociology. These lessons are not restricted to sociology faculty; individuals from a variety of disciplines can utilize the lessons to assist with the implementation of community-based learning into their courses. (author)