Participatory Evaluation of Community Outcomes of Student Service-Learning

Purpose: Community service-learning research has been primarily focused on outcomes of student learning, faculty perceptions of the pedagogy, program development of the pedagogy, and growth of partnerships with community partners. Community outcomes that result from hours of student service-learning participation are less well known. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss future application of evaluation research using a participatory approach focused on measuring the impact of student service-learning on community health outcomes.

Methods: To begin to address this effort, an Integrative Literature review to identify and examine existing research on the impact of student community experiences on community health outcomes was conducted. The aim of the review was to identify potential research designs, methodologies, and tools as a basis for future evaluation study of impact of student projects on community outcomes. Databases searched for this review included:  CINAHL PLUS, Cochrane Review, Pub Med, Medline, Proquest Dissertations and Thesis, Psych Info, and Sociological Abstracts. While the search generated some 36 studies, only a few primary research reports, specifically addressed community health outcomes.

Results: The findings from the studies affirmed positive community outcomes in areas of health promotion, health literacy, self-efficacy, access to community/federal programs attributed to student impact. However, the lack of rigor, the variability in methodologies, designs, and outcome indicators among the studies pose significant limitations for generalization of findings.

Conclusion: There is a paucity of literature that evaluates community outcomes resulting from student service-learning participation. The aim for future study is the development of a systematic evaluation, focused on community outcomes to substantiate the contribution of service-learning to overall community health. A research approach for community outcome evaluation using a participatory process will be discussed.