Benefits

• Expands role of educator from giver of knowledge to facilitator of knowledge.
• Inspires and innovates teaching methods.
• Broadens areas for research and publication related to current trends and issues.
• Promotes democratic citizenship and leadership.
• Connects the community with curriculum and increases awareness of current societal issues as they relate to academic areas of interest.

Challenges

• Research is viewed as most important aspect, leaving little time to coordinate work of students within the community.
• Fear of unknown and letting go of control of the classroom when the impact of Service-Learning is not easy to quantify in short term.
• Lack of institutional and departmental support given to faculty.
• Lack of time to adequately revise and restructure course in order to fully integrate Service-Learning.
• Viewing Service-Learning as soft, non-rigorous, non-academic learning or as an add-on, not an integral aspect of the course.