Collaborative: Project PSyCHE

Collaborator: Hugh Lena
Phone: 865-2511
Dept: Sociology/Public and Community Service
Email: hlena@providence.edu

Resources Requested

Stipend 1 AY: 1,400.00; Joseph Cammarano
Stipend 1 Summer: 400.00 Joseph Cammarano
Stipend 2 AY: 1,400.00; Hugh Lena
Stipend 2 Summer: 400.00 Hugh Lena

ElementK: $70.00 each for the two collaborators.

Audio and Video Editing Software: $300.00

Student Assitant(s): $1450.00

7.25/hour for 10 hours per week, 10 weeks per semester. The student will be charged with collecting information from current and past courses, and transferring it into digital form for storage. Student will also be responsible for creating CDs customized to individual courses.

Total: $5,490.00

Project Info

Start Date: July 1, 2003
End Date: June 30, 2004

Key Milestones:

August 15, 2003: Equipment purchased.

September, 2003: First CD created for students in PSP 202; student hired for project.

December 15, 2003: Fall 2003 classes provide digital information to be included in database.

January 31, 2004: Spring 2004 PSP classes given CDs with compilation of class and site experiences; all PSP courses have Angel pages; Angel groups started.

May 2004: Capstone Students use database in their final presentations.

June, 2004: All information from 2002-2004 collected and compiled.

---

 

Deliverables

Angel or Course-Related: Full use of Angel by every member of the PSP faculty, as well a Angel groups that integrate alumni and community partners. Students will also learn to communicate using the integration of written and multimedia information.

Multimedia CDs: Customized CDs for courses that include materials that help orient them to their specific service sites, and assist in course reflection and integration of materials in a site-specific manner.

Enhancement to Professional Practices: Experience in using MS Access for cumulative course record-keeping; using multimedia to communicate ideas relating to curriculum; sharing in a comprehensive manner the experience of the PSP program.

Paper or Article: Michigan Journal of Service Learning and/or other journals that publish research on educational pedagogy.

Professional Presentation: Plan to present the results at the 4th Annual International Conference on Service Learning Research in Fall 2004.

---

Primary Objective

Project Title: Project PSyCHE (Public Service Curriculum for Higher Education)

Project Objectives: To bring the developmental curriculum of the Public and Community Service Program on-line, to serve the curricular, instructional, and other educational needs of our students (past and present), faculty, community partners, and the national audience of service learning professionals. The primary purpose of this project is to improve the instructional practices in our developmental curriculum using technology.

We believe that the creation and dissemination of lectures, events, reflections, course content, service experiences, and other aspects of the Feinstein Institute will enhance the educational development of students, help faculty to more effectively coordinate the curricular goals of the program, and provide outside parties a clear and comprehensive resource for learning about the Public Service Program.

Rationale: Given the unique nature of the Public and Community Service Studies Program, faculty and students have a decade-long record of experimentation with pedagogical innovation. Moreover, as a result of extensive discussions among our constituent members (faculty, students, and community partners) and several summer retreats, we are committed to a collaborative approach to improving our developmental curriculum. Members of the faculty have had a long-standing interest in sharing information across courses, but we have not had successful concrete action to assure that information is shared in a way that improves instruction and curricular learning. This proposal will create a clear, achievable plan to implement this goal. Such information sharing will enhance the learning environment for our students and allow for a more comprehensive orientation of students to their community service sites. Finally, we will share the experience of our program, a national model for other service-learning professionals as they develop their programs, with external colleagues as they investigate the nature, content, and structure of our program.

Several faculty members make extensive use of technology for in-class instruction. It is our goal to expand the practice to other members of the PSP faculty and to create a cross-course sharing, one that is pivotal to our laddered curriculum.

The resources to be collected include: ·

• The mission and objectives of our program.
• Course syllabi, assignments, and materials.
• Faculty course exercises and reflections on those exercises.
• Student reflections and related portfolio materials, including writing, audio and video files.
• Faculty writing on service learning and other related matters.
• Community partner information and student reflections on site experiences.
• An extensive collection of recorded events sponsored by the Institute.
• Ancillary teaching materials and classroom activities.

Dissemination of the information will be achieved via Angel, and through the creation and distribution of customized CDs for each course.

Assessment

We will assess this project by utilizing the following criteria:

• The creation of a central electronic location for all PSP related information.
• Increased use of Angel in PSP classes (with the goal being 100% participation).
• Participation of all constituency groups (students, faculty, community partners) in an Angel Public Service Program Group.
• Multimedia presentations done by students in PSP course to be added to the information depository created from the project.
• Creation of Angel surveys that measure the extent of usage of information and value of instructional resources on the site.
• The creation of an on-line (and CD version of)orientation to the Feinstein Institute for community partners and other interested external parties.
• An increase in the percentage of graduating students who meet the standards stated in the PSP objectives that are assessed each academic year.
• Voluntary submissions by constituency groups to be added to the database, including the sharing of experiences related to the program submitted by graduates of the program who continue to work in public and community service.