Service-Learning Australia

Monitoring and evaluation are central to the sustainability of service-learning.  Monitoring motivates students and community partners by highlighting progress towards achieving service goals and learning goals, and helps identify any changes that should be made.  It helps to clarify priorities and enhance accountability.  It is important not only to monitor progress but also process - conceptualizing, planning, implementing and operating the service-learning project. This can lead to improvements that effect the project’s outcomes.  To be effective, monitoring should be an integral part of the entire process of service-learning.  You don’t need to conduct a final, scientific evaluation – a weekly check on progress against baselines is very effective. 

In normal classroom work, you know your students’ academic baselines and regularly monitor their progress towards meeting learning goals and the process used to achieve this.   In service-learning, the first step in monitoring progress is to establish clear, specific baselines for the academic learning goals, other learning goals (changes in values and attitudes, community, career, interpersonal, learning to be a learner etc.) and service goals.  These baselines should be very clear to you, the students, your community partners and the community you are serving.  They enable you to compare the baseline with the outcomes being achieved at each stage.  However, you must be careful to ensure that goals and outcomes are realistic, measurable and relevant to key stakeholders - avoid over-estimating the expected change as a result of the service being provided.

When writing outcomes, ask yourself:

• What is the service that will be provided?
• What is the intended result of the service being provided (the full range of outcomes for all the stakeholders)?
• How will the quality and/or impact of the work be measured?
• What is the standard of success that the program hopes to achieve?
• How many individuals will benefit?

Every stakeholder involved in the service-learning project will have outcomes they want achieved, so they should also be encouraged to establish baselines and monitor progress towards meeting these outcomes.   This information will enables each group to understand, learn and improve the process by integrating the findings into the program design.  As the different stakeholders see their outcomes being met, they will become enthusiastic about supporting service-learning and sustaining service-learning programs and partnerships.

Each partner should be clear and realistic about commitments of resources - time, personnel, money etc. Try to work through any potential misunderstandings or differences early on, and clearly state responsibilities. Remember that service-learning partnerships are “win-win” propositions.  By identifying and recognizing each other’s individual objectives and by identifying and focusing on mutual goals, both sides will achieve their outcomes.  The TTT Templates and the template “Designing Good Quality Service-Learning” should help you in this process.