Evaluating Service Learning: Reflection and Assessment from the Student Point of View

Abstract

"Service Learning is usually evaluated through interviews with the community partners at the end of projects and through reflection papers and journals that the students produce. This paper will discuss the students’ part of this evaluation, based on a service learning project in an accounting reporting course at San Diego State University . (For further detail on the entire course, see Vik and Doran, “Experiential Learning for Accountants: The Not for Profit Project,” ABSEL Proceedings, March 2001.) Students choosing a hands-on project write a journal and a reflection paper to evaluate the project. For the past six semesters, all students (both those doing a hands-on project and those doing the simulation) were asked to take a quick survey about the not for profit project. The results have given us reasons to retain and improve the project. "