Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning
Community-engaged teaching and learning is a form of education that enriches student experiences through the development of reciprocal, sustainable community partnerships, leveraging university and community resources to impact students and strengthen both the university and the community. Community-engaged teaching, as a form of scholarly work, is characterized by its interconnection with the advancement of knowledge in academia and the community, continuous improvement and reflection on learning methods, and the integration of research and practice.
Also known as service-learning, community-engaged teaching connects coursework and outside-of-classroom experiences to community-identified concerns, thereby deepening students’ civic and academic learning and enhancing community well-being.
Benefits of Community-Engaged Teaching
Faculty
- Connect course content to real-life experiences that enhance student learning.
- Enhance student interaction through active learning, which fosters increased participation.
- Encourage reciprocal learning to foster stronger, more meaningful relationships with your students.
- Align teaching, research, and/or creative activities, and service.
- Foster relationships with community organizations that can open other opportunities for collaborative work, such as research.
- Tap into the expertise of community agencies as co-teachers.
- Enhance your understanding of community issues and explore practical ways to address them.
Students
- Build career-ready skills.
- Gain real-world experience for your resume.
- Strengthen your civic and social responsibility.
- Connect with mentors, faculty, and community leaders
- Apply skills and knowledge in hands-on ways that increase the relevance of academic learning
Community Partners
- Gain fresh perspectives and innovative solutions from students and faculty.
- Build meaningful, mutually beneficial partnerships with the university.
- Increase your organization’s capacity to achieve mission and goals.
- Foster the next generation of civic-minded leaders.
Community Engaged Courses
The basic criteria for designating an existing course as a community-engaged course at UConn include:
- Involves a collaborative partnership built on reciprocity, where community partners co-create goals and share resources in mutually beneficial ways.
- Demonstrates a clear connection between the community engagement activity and the course content.
- Involves structured student reflection.
- Designed to develop student civic literacy and engagement.
A course may be designated as community-engaged if its activities partner with public or private organizations to enhance teaching and learning, foster civic responsibility, address societal challenges, and contribute to the public good (American Council on Education, 2025).
Find Community-Engaged Courses
Use the University of Connecticut class search website, and you can find various Community Engaged Courses. On the left pane, you can filter by semester.
Designate Your Course as a Community-Engaged Course
Community-engaged courses play a vital role in advancing the university’s public mission. By designating your course with the Service-Learning Attribute, instructors can showcase how community-engaged learning is integrated into their teaching. The attribute also helps students easily identify courses that offer community-engaged experiences. Additionally, it provides valuable data on the number, scale, and frequency of these offerings, supporting the university’s efforts to track, assess, and enhance community-engaged teaching and learning practices.
More information on how to add the Service-Learning Course Attribute can be found here:
Faculty Service-Learning Fellowship Program
Become a Service-Learning Faculty Fellow. This is a full-year fellowship opportunity for faculty interested in designing or enhancing a service-learning course. The Service-Learning Fellowship program offers instructors interested in service learning training, networking, and project development opportunities to evaluate their teaching and enhance their impact in communities.
Our Services
The Office of Outreach and Engagement supports individual faculty members and academic units with all stages of community-engaged course development and implementation. We are available to consult with instructors to explore models of community-engaged teaching that best suit learning goals for courses at all levels of the curriculum.
Contact engagement@uconn.edu to schedule a consultation