Welcome, Faculty & Instructors!
This page will serve as your comprehensive guide to integrating community-based learning into your courses at UC Merced. Follow the steps below to begin your community engagement journey!
Understand What We Offer
The Community Engagement Center supports faculty and instructors who desire to teach a community based learning course. While some professors like to manage the entire course on their own, for those who are interested but would like some support, there are many ways in which the Community Engagement Center can help.
"Theory-to-practice opportunities for students to promote greater cognitive complexity, make learning more relevant to today's societal issues, and foster civic skills and inclinations necessary for society's future leaders" (CSHE, 2006).
Review Our Support Services
The Community Engagement Center can assist you with various aspects of community-based learning implementation:
- Help identify a community based project to support course learning outcomes
- Facilitate the introduction to, and relationship with, community partner
- Help identify potential course deliverables
- Provide in-class orientation to community engagement for course participants
- Provide supplemental information for course and syllabus design
- Provide student course-related service tracking and validation
- Provide support for transportation for students to community-based service sites
Find a Community Partner
The Community Engagement Center can help match a course and community partner from either perspective. As we engage with the community we become aware of needs and potential service opportunities, and can seek a course with appropriate course goals. We can also take course goals, and seek out a potential community partner with a project best suited to reflect those goals.
Explore Community Based Research
Community Based Research is sometimes a "next step," following from, or growing out of, a community based learning project or course. The Community Engagement Center can help in the development of an agreement and identification of deliverables, but may also direct the course instructor and/or the community partner to other more well-suited campus resources.
Additional Resources
- Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center (UROC) - http://uroc.ucmerced.edu
- Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship (ReCCES) - http://recces.ucmerced.edu
Ready to Get Started?
Our team is here to support you throughout your community-based learning journey. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Contact us:
communityservice@ucmerced.edu
