For Students:

• Allows students to apply what they are learning in real-world settings and reflect in a classroom setting. 
• Supports complexity of understanding, problem analysis,  critical thinking, and cognitive development.  
• Enables the possibility for cognitive dissonance/disequilibrium to occur in a setting where students can receive support from faculty, peers, and course content. 
• Encourages personal development such as sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, 
• Spiritual growth, communication skills and moral development.
• Resonates with students from a variety of cultural  backgrounds.  
• Reduces stereotypes and facilitates cultural and racial  understanding.  
• Deepens relationships with faculty, peers and community.
• Provides students with direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyze problems in the community. 
• Has been demonstrated to promote improved student  retention and graduation rates. 

For Community:

• Expands mission and reach of community organizations without increasing costs.
• Valuable human resources help achieve community goals. Students may complete work the community partner has no bandwidth to complete. 
• Gain fresh ideas and energy from student participation and contributions. 
• Reduces barriers. 
• Long-lasting relationships between organizations, students and educators build trust. (Nchaga 2025)
• Opens the door to more networking possibilities.
• Satisfaction with student participation. 

For Faculty:

• Develops more powerful curricula by providing students  with a “real world” context for academic theory and engaging  students in discussions that invite new perspectives and  relevant personal experiences. 
• Identifies new areas for research and publication, thus  increasing opportunities for knowledge creation and dissemination, and professional recognition. 
• Reinvigorates frequently taught courses or longstanding curricula. 
• Helps faculty stay current on applications of course content and provides concrete examples of future use of skills and knowledge.
• Opportunities for cross-disciplinary and campus-community collaboration.

Product Deliverables

In some community-based courses, students will co-create products guided by community requests.  Some examples of possible products might include the design of an infographic, brochure, or social media posts focused on a particular community education campaign; the collection and/or analysis of data to inform decision-making or initiative planning; planning and delivering a workshop or educational resource on a topic of interest to the community; or working with community members to create an exhibit, film or other artistic product.  Students also might undertake specific projects to meet community needs.  For example, students might collaborate on a community needs assessment that identifies the strengths and challenges of a given neighborhood or a survey to identify possible community member interests.

In assessing student work, it is important to emphasize that the learning is in the doing.  Both students and community members need to understand that these products may not be “perfect.”  Evaluation factors should include items such as: level of collaboration, timeliness, and responsiveness to community.  Community feedback to students should be integrated into the overall course design.  Reflection assessments help students understand what they learned through the process and should be included in overall student evaluation.

Reflective Assessment

Reflective assessments are essential in community-based learning because they help students make meaningful connections between the applied learning experiences and the course objectives. When students are encouraged to think critically about what they observed, how they felt, and why certain outcomes occurred, it helps to deepen their understanding and supports their personal and professional growth. Below are a few examples of some types of reflection assessments that can be used in community-based learning courses

• Journal Reflections: Journal reflections allow students to maintain a personal record of their experiences throughout the course. These journals may be submitted to the instructor at set intervals, such as weekly or monthly, or used later to support a comprehensive reflection paper. The goal of journaling is not to just document community-based learning activities, but to thoughtfully connect personal experiences in the community with course concepts and learning outcomes. There are several different styles of journaling that can be incorporated as a form of reflection with a few examples listed below. 
• Personal Journaling: This form allows students to write freely about their experiences. Guidance can be provided to help students connect their writing to course objectives. 
• Key Phrase Journaling: This form allows students to connect the course content with the service experience. At the beginning of the course, the instructor provides a few phrases that help guide students through their journal writing.
• Double-entry Journaling: This form of journaling allows the students to align their personal reflections with course objectives. On the left side of the page, the students write about their own personal experiences and then on the right side of the page, they write about key readings or discussions from class. 
• Directed Writings: Directed writing assignments guide students to examine their community-based learning experiences in relation to course content. Instructors select specific readings or concepts and create questions for students to respond to. 
• Example Prompt: For this journal, tell me about conflict you have experienced at your community-based learning site or previous site/experience. Have you had to use any of the principles of negotiation or mediation? Have you had to advocate for yourself, your project, or your priorities? Is there anything you wish went differently? Journals should be between 250-500 words. You will be graded complete/incomplete. 
• Presentations: Students can share their community-based learning experiences with peers, faculty, and community partners through formal presentations. These presentations provide an opportunity to showcase their work and insights in a public  setting. Additionally, the presentation can be a way to recognize the students’ contributions and highlight the products/outcomes of their involvement.
• Exit Cards: These brief note card reflections can be turned in at the end of each class period or at the end of the week. Students are asked to reflect on class discussions and relate course content to their community experiences.

Adopted from the Gettysburg College CBL Toolkit, 2015

Immerse Yourself

Before beginning any community-based project, take time to understand the community’s lived experiences, values, and environment. Immersion means actively engaging with people and spaces—listening, observing, and participating. You might conduct site visits, attend meetings, or collaborate with residents to see issues firsthand. Immersion builds understanding and empathy, helping faculty and students recognize community priorities, assets, and challenges before proposing solutions. 

Build Trust

Successful collaborations depend on trust, transparency, and respect. Trust develops through consistency—showing up, following through, and honoring commitments. It also means acknowledging the power and privilege that university partners may bring and ensuring community members’ voices guide decision-making from the start. Reciprocity is key: each partner should have a clear understanding of the shared goals, responsibilities, and intended outcomes. Effective partnerships are equitable, allowing both community organizations and students to benefit—meeting course objectives while addressing  community-identified needs.

Promise Only What You Can Deliver

Set clear expectations about what your class or project can realistically achieve within the semester or program timeline. Avoid overpromising or committing to outcomes that exceed available time, funding, or expertise. Clear boundaries ensure credibility and strengthen relationships for future collaboration. 

Prioritize Process

In community-based learning, how you work together is just as important as what you produce. Prioritizing process means emphasizing collaboration, communication, and reflection throughout every phase of the partnership. Continuous  communication—before, during, and after the semester— is essential to building understanding and trust. Regular checkins, shared planning meetings, and project follow-up ensure that both university and community partners remain aligned and supported.

Purposeful and planned feedback should occur at least midway through the semester and again at the end. This feedback should address the overall experience, student performance, the project’s impact on the organization, and progress toward shared goals. When faculty and students dedicate time for communication and feedback, they create stronger relationships, adapt more effectively to challenges, and ensure that the learning experience is mutually meaningful and sustainable

Confront Controversy

Complex social issues often surface disagreement, tension, or discomfort—and that’s okay. In community-based learning, controversy can be a sign of meaningful engagement with realworld challenges. Rather than avoiding difficult conversations, approach them with openness, respect, and curiosity. Create a classroom and partnership culture that values dialogue, active listening, and multiple perspectives. Faculty can model how to discuss sensitive topics constructively, encourage students to reflect on differing viewpoints, and ensure that all participants—students and community members alike—feel heard and respected. When handled thoughtfully, confronting controversy deepens understanding, promotes critical thinking, and strengthens community relationships. 

Identify the Community's Strengths

Effective partnerships begin with recognizing and valuing the strengths already present in the community. Every neighborhood, school, or organization has its own expertise, networks, traditions, and resources. By focusing on these existing assets—rather than framing the community in terms of its challenges—faculty and students adopt an asset-based approach that fosters respect and collaboration. This perspective shifts the relationship from one of “helping” to one of mutual learning and growth, where both the community and the university build new knowledge and capabilities together. Projects designed with this mindset strengthen community pride, highlight local leadership, and support long-term sustainability. 

Utilize Local Resources

Whenever possible, build on the resources, expertise, and networks that already exist within the community. Partnering with local organizations, leaders, and professionals helps ensure that projects are relevant, responsive, and grounded in real contexts. Utilizing local resources also supports the community’s own infrastructure—strengthening relationships between Temple and Philadelphia’s neighborhoods and allowing students to learn directly from the experiences and insights of people who work and live in those communities. Faculty can also consider how university resources—facilities, research, and student energy—can be shared responsibly to meet community goals. 

Design with the Community's Voice

Effective community partnerships center the voices of those  most directly affected by the issues being explored. This means co-creating goals, messages, and project outcomes with  community members rather than for them. Inviting partners into course discussions, presentations, and decision-making helps ensure that their perspectives shape the process and results. When the community’s voice is integrated throughout, the project reflects authentic lived experiences, strengthens cultural understanding, and produces outcomes that truly resonate with the people they are meant to serve. 

Give Communities Ownership

Shared ownership transforms collaboration into lasting impact. When community partners have agency in both the process and the results—through co-leadership, authorship, or decision- making—the work becomes more sustainable and empowering. Faculty can support ownership by clarifying how the community will use, maintain, or expand upon the project after the semester ends. This approach ensures that students are not simply  completing a class assignment but contributing to something that continues to live within and serve the community beyond  the academic calendar. 

Sustained Engagement

Long-term relationships build trust, accountability, and deeper impact. Whenever possible, continue communication after a project ends, share results, and explore ways to stay connected. Even small follow-ups—like sharing outcomes or celebrating successes— reinforce Temple’s commitment to mutual, ongoing learning.

Sustained involvement is key: stepping in and out of a community development process only when it benefits a course or research project can be harmful to relationships and trust. When possible, faculty are encouraged to maintain involvement with their partner organizations or communities over time—through volunteering, membership, or ongoing collaboration. This commitment creates more meaningful experiences for students and fosters stronger, more authentic partnerships grounded in trust and understanding.

Key Best Practices

1. Start with conversations, not documents: Begin with purposeful dialogue between all partners to  identify shared goals, mutual benefits, and what each party can contribute before drafting formal language. 
2. Clarify roles and responsibilities explicitly: Delineate specific expectations for the community partner, instructor, and students, including who does what, when, and how decisions will be made. 
3. Include essential structural elements: 
   • Partner identification and authorized signatories  
   • Project purpose and learning goals or outcomes
   • Timeline with clear start/end dates
   • Decision-making process
   • Conflict resolution provisions
   • Financial terms (if applicable)
4. Address intellectual property and confidentiality upfront: Specify who owns project outputs, what requires confidentiality, and whether students need separate non-disclosure agreements. Create a community-approved project description students can use professionally.
5. Plan for sustainability and evolution: Articulate whether and how the partnership will continue  beyond initial funding or course completion, and establish procedures for amending the MOU when partners join or leave. 
6. Ensure institutional compliance: Secure necessary approvals from department chairs or  deans, verify research compliance requirements (IRB, IACUC), and have authorized university representatives sign the  agreement. 
7.  Use the MOU as a learning tool: Reference it in course syllabi, involve students in understanding partnership commitments, and frame it as both a process document and outcome of collaborative relationship-building. 
8. Clarify the legal nature of the agreement: Explicitly state whether the MOU is legally binding or  operates as a more informal agreement expressing shared commitments and mutual respect. 

Examples of Memorandum of Understanding

• UCLA How to Design a Community-Academic Partnered MOU Form
• University of Minnesota: Partnership MOU Resource
• University of Wisconsin LaCross Community Engagement  Memorandum of Understanding & Research Compliance  Resource 

Some Things to Consider When Preparing Students:

• Understanding the roles of participants
• Skills and information required
• Safety precautions
• The people with whom they will be working

Activities help students understand their roles, expectations and logistics, as well as relevant context for interacting with community members and completing the designated activity or project

Some Activities Might Include:

• Participation in a special training or orientation
• Reading relevant newspapers, magazines, textbooks, or novels
• Conducting research online, in the community, or in textbooks
• Mapping community assets
• Interviewing community members about their ideas and concerns for the community
• Listening to a guest speaker or attend a relevant program 
• Accessing a preparatory guide or handbook

Some Topics to Include in Pre-engagement Preparation Activities:

• Students will need to reflect on their biases and preconceptions prior to engaging with the community to avoid missteps that harm trust and could diminish faculty members' willingness to continue partnering. Students  may also experience cognitive dissonance as they begin their work. Discussing this explicitly and providing resources ahead of time helps. 
• Ensure students clearly understand what they will do, the time commitment, how and when they will engage and the reciprocal nature of the partnership. Emphasize principles of equitable partnership and teach relevant skills such as active listening. 
• Connect the community-based activity with the course goals and course content they have been studying or skills they have been practicing.
• Introduce the reflection framework early, encouraging students to reflect on their experiences before, during and after engagement.
• Share rubrics for reflection and assessment to support student understanding or your expectations.

Practical Preparation:

• Clarify logistical details such as transportation arrangements, contact information for community partners, communication protocols, key dates, etc.
• If there is an MOU or Affiliation Agreement, share it with students and ensure they clearly understand its contents.

Adapted from the Gettysburg College CBL Toolkit, 2015

Sample CBL Syllabus Document

Recognize the Time Investment:

Creating and facilitating community-based courses takes time, often well beyond the usual hours that instructors put into teaching a course. Time requirements for these courses include: 

• Building relationships with community stakeholders and organizations. This investment of time is necessary to understand the scope of work to be done, maintain equity in faculty –  community relationships, and provide accountability. Community members may be wary in partnering with faculty and students, especially if there exist problematic histories between university and community. Taking the time to cultivate trust is essential to having a successful course  experience for all. 
• Developing the course. The logistics for community-engaged courses are different from those of more traditional courses. Negotiating with the community partner to determine schedules of activities and deliverables that respect community members and students requires time commitment well in advance of the course.
• Conducting the course. With the addition of a community partner, and the engagement of students in “real life” activities, there are additional monitoring demands that necessitate instructor time. This includes time getting to and from a community site, to making sure that activities are completed, to holding space for community members or students to raise concerns while a project is underway.

Course Scheduling

Because these courses rely on community partners, when they meet matters. Standard university time blocks often don’t fit community logistics. Community-based courses typically work best in longer class sessions (e.g., one three-hour block), often evenings and/or weekends, with travel time considered. Instructors should be consulted before scheduling.

Community Compensation

To avoid extractive relationships, community members should be compensated for their time and expertise when possible. Compensation may include stipends for participants, payments to host organizations, or meaningful in-kind support beyond course deliverables.

Sustaining Courses

Given the time and resource investment—and that successful partnerships often take more than one iteration—administration should support continuity. This can include protecting the  course in the schedule, adjusting workload to reflect added demands, and offering ongoing incentives that support  community participation.

Recognition in Faculty Development

Metrics for promotion, tenure, contract renewal, and merit need to take into account the ways in which community-engaged teaching manifest different outcomes compared to teaching  traditional courses. This especially includes recognizing  deliverables such as community-centered information or scholarship of teaching and learning products that do not resemble the “typical” faculty output but nonetheless have generated new knowledge and practice.

Temple Resources

1. Office of Community Impact and Civic Engagement (OCICE): The centralized hub for Temple’s place-based community  initiatives, OCICE coordinates and mobilizes university resources—academic, clinical and operational—across  four pillars of impact: education, economic inclusion, healthy neighborhoods and civic engagement. 
2. Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT): Supports  faculty in using evidence-based practices to design and deliver effective learning experiences. Faculty planning and teaching community-based learning courses are invited to attend workshops, schedule one-on-one consultations and use the CAT’s course observation services. The CAT also helps faculty conduct research on educational interventions through their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning resources.
3. Office of Community Affairs and Engagement: Connects Temple faculty, staff, students, and alumni with volunteer opportunities and community-engaged learning experiences in Philadelphia, particularly North Philadelphia. It facilitates partnerships between the university and local communities through collaboration with Owls for Philly, Lenfest, and other workforce development programs, and scholarship opportunities that help Temple members engage meaningfully with their neighbors. 
4. Institutional Advancement and Development Offices: Connect with your school or college’s development officer to discuss possible funding for community-based learning initiatives through donor support. 
5. Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership (IDEAL): Support and resources relevant to preparing students to engage with the community by examining possible biases and assumptions and learning strategies for respectful engagement. 
6. Office of the Vice President for Research Funding Portals: Temple faculty and staff have access to a number of databases to search grants or other sources of funding in support of community-based initiatives. 
7. Risk Management and Insurance: Consult with this office if you have questions about safety, legal liability, working with minors or insurance. 
8. Temple Research Compliance: If your class involves research activities involving the community, consult with the relevant research compliance office to ensure the necessary approvals are in place. If you are not sure whether IRB approval will be required, a simple email to irb@temple.edu outlining your planned activity is a good starting place.

Journals

Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice 

• A peer-reviewed, open access journal, sponsored by the University of Miami and Rutgers University. It is a site for sharing research and practice emanating from university-community collaborations. It was created to highlight research that describes, examines and evaluates the many different forms of university-community collaborations.

Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 

• A peer-reviewed international journal through which faculty, staff, students, and community partners disseminate scholarly works. JCES integrates teaching, research, and community engagement in all disciplines, addressing critical problems identified through a community-participatory process.

Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 

• Serve[s] as the premier peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal to advance theory and practice related to all forms of outreach and engagement between higher education institutions and communities. 

Journal of Participatory Research Methods 

• A transdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that is focused on the methods, techniques, tools and strategies of participatory research. The journal features articles about research methods as a means to share concepts and techniques unique to research work that involves participants and communities in the research process. JPRM aims to publish articles that show and tell about the methods authors use in conducting participatory research so that other researchers can use and adapt those methods for their own work.

Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 

• The MJCSL is a national, peer-reviewed journal for college and university faculty and administrators, with an editorial board of faculty from many academic disciplines and professional fields at the University of Michigan and other US higher education institutions. 

Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement  

• Partnerships recognizes that successful engaged learning depends on effective partnerships between students, faculty, community agencies, administrators, disciplines, and more. The articles in this peer-reviewed journal focus on how theories and practices can inform and improve such partnerships, connections, and collaborations. Studies co-authored by faculty, students, and/or community partners examining practices across disciplines or campuses; or exploring international networks, are all encouraged. 

 Journal of Community Practice  

• The Journal of Community Practice is an interdisciplinary journal grounded in social welfare. The journal provides a forum for community practice, including community organizing, planning, social administration, organizational development, community development, social action, and social change. The journal contributes to the advancement of knowledge related to numerous disciplines, including social work and the social sciences, urban planning, social and economic development, community organizing, policy analysis, urban and rural sociology, community health, public administration, and nonprofit management. As a forum for authors and a resource for readers, this journal makes an invaluable contribution to practice in community settings from conceptualization to implementation to evaluation. 

Metropolitan University Journal

• Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ) is the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities’ quarterly online journal. First published in 1990, the journal disseminates scholarship and research relevant to urban and metropolitan universities. Articles amplify the mission of CUMU by reinforcing the value of place-based institutions and illuminating our collective work of supporting the changing needs of our students, institutions, and cities. Readership includes those working to address issues facing modern universities and the communities they serve. Authors with diverse institutional and professional perspectives present research on the best practices and applications of theory in each issue. 

Related Associations and Organizations

Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) 

• A network of over 25 colleges and universities that strengthens service-learning, civic engagement, and community partnership in Philadelphia, connecting academics with community involvement.

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) – Civic Learning 

• Through its Office of Global Citizenship for Campus, Community, and Careers (GC4), AAC&U promotes integrative global & civic learning through initiatives and practices that empower students to engage meaningfully and ethically with global challenges. 

Campus Compact 

• The largest and most inclusive national conference focused on the role of higher education in building healthy communities and fostering a just and equal democracy. 

Coalition for Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) 

• The leading voice and forum for higher education leaders anchoring and energizing urban and metropolitan communities. 

Community-based Global Learning Collaborative 

• A network of educational institutions and community organizations. The Collaborative advances community-based global learning and research for more just, inclusive, and sustainable communities. 

Engaged Scholarship Consortium 

• Composed of higher education member institutions, a mix of state-public and private institutions. Our goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.

Mayor of Philadelphia’s Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service 

• The Community Action Agency (CAA) for Philadelphia. As a CAA since 1964, our agency has a unique role in promoting racial equity, greater financial stability, and self-sufficiency for the city’s most vulnerable populations. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that all Philadelphians can share in the city’s prosperous future, regardless of race or where they were born. 

Place-Based Justice Network 

• Focusing on a place-based community engagement strategy invites institutions of higher education and their communities into a deeper examination of how transformation and change occurs on campus and in communities.

Texts Available Through Temple Library

• Gray, J. B. (2018). A professor's lessons learned in community-based research and service-learning. SAGE Publications Ltd.
• Hartman, E., Kiely, R. C., Friedrichs, J., & Boettcher, J. V. (2023). Community-based global learning: The theory and practice of ethical engagement at home and abroad. Routledge.
• Clifford, J., & Reisinger, D. S. (2019). Community-based language learning: A framework for educators. Georgetown University Press.
• Prast, H. A., & Viegut, D. J. (2015). Community-based learning: Awakening the mission of public schools. Corwin. 
• Mayo, M. (2020). Community-based learning and social movements: Popular education in a populist age. Policy Press. 
• Eatman, T. K., Beckman, M., & Long, J. F. (Eds.). (2023). Community-based research: Teaching for community impact. Stylus Publishing. 
• Winterbottom, C., Nicholson, J. S., & Dan, R. F. (2020). Community-based transformational learning: An interdisciplinary inquiry into student experiences and challenges. Bloomsbury. 
• Kramer, L. A., & Freedman Fask, J. (2017). Creative collaborations through inclusive theatre and community-based learning: Students in transition. Palgrave Macmillan. 
• Dawson, T., Etmanski, C., & Hall, B. L. (Eds.). (2018). Learning and teaching community-based research: Linking pedagogy to practice. University of Toronto Press.
• Etmanski, C., Hall, B. L., & Dawson, T. (2014). Learning and teaching community-based research: Linking pedagogy to practice. University of Toronto Press.
• Reed, S. C., & Marienau, C. (2008). Linking adults with community: Promoting civic engagement through community-based learning. Jossey-Bass.
• Evans, M., Moran, C. M., & Sanchez, E. (2024). Place-based learning: Connecting inquiry, community, and culture. Solution Tree.
• Evans, R., Kurantowicz, E., & Lucio-Villegas, E. (2022). Remaking communities and adult learning: Social and community-based learning, new forms of knowledge and action for change. Brill. 
• Shah, R. W. (2020). Rewriting partnerships: Community perspectives on community-based learning. Utah State University Press. 
• Butterwick, S., & Roy, C. (2016). Working the margins of community-based adult learning: The power of arts-making in finding voice and creating conditions for seeing/listening. SensePublishers.