Purpose of Community Engagement Course designation
In 2012, the Faculty Advisory Committee to the Institute for Community Engagement and Scholarship successfully completed a four-year project to introduce a designator for community engagement courses in the class schedule. A course with the designation of “**Community Engagement” in the notes section of the class schedule signifies that the course integrates learning experiences where faculty, students, and community engage in mutually beneficial collaboration through interactions that address community identified opportunities, deepen students’ civic and academic learning, enhance community well-being, and enrich the scholarship of the university.
The Community Engagement Course designation assists students in identifying courses that provide opportunities to connect academic learning and theory with issues and applications in the community, supports important aspects of Metro State’s institutional mission and commitments, and contributes to larger institutional accreditation processes, including the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
Submitting a Community Engagement Course designation form
Community Engaged Designation Request Forms are accepted throughout the year and are reviewed during the academic calendar on a monthly basis by the Faculty Advisory Committee to the Institute for Community Engagement and Scholarship.
Courses with the Community Engagement Designation are reviewed on a 5-year cycle. Faculty that have made substantive changes to the curriculum where the designation is no longer warranted, please notify the Institute for Community Engagement and Scholarship at community.engagement@metrostate.edu.
Before submitting a course for the CE designation, we encourage consultation with Institute staff or your College’s faculty representative to the Faculty Advisory Committee. Our role is to support the development of high-quality community engaged learning through partnership development, syllabi integration, student preparedness, critical reflection, and evaluation and assessment. Faculty can consult with an Institute for Community Engagement and Scholarship team member by emailing community.engagement@metrostate.edu.
All Metro State courses that bear the Community Engagement Course Designation must submit the Community Engagement Course Designation request form.
Guiding Principles for Quality Community Engaged Learning
All submissions will be reviewed based on the following guiding principles:
- Clear relation between the community engagement strategies/activities and the course learning objectives
- Description of community-engaged learning component in course syllabus
- Sufficient time on community engagement tasks to warrant designation
- Adequate preparation of students for community-engaged learning experiences
- Integrated reflection strategies to connect experiential activity with student learning outcomes
- Relevance to university priorities of reciprocal and mutually beneficial community partnerships, anti-racism, and social transformation
- Assessment of student learning that results from community engagement
A completed submission includes the Community Engagement Course Designation Request Form and a course syllabus and/or related documents/assignments.