Just Launched: Community Engaged Teaching & Learning Database
The Community Engaged Scholarship Institute team is extremely pleased to announce the launch of our Community Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) Database. This online repository was developed in response to an identified need for information and tangible resources related to CETL - it contains detailed records of select courses with CETL components at the University of Guelph, as well as a range of actual resources used in those courses.
The Database was designed to serve as a resource to students, instructors, and community partners with varying levels of familiarity with CETL from a range of fields. It showcases diverse CETL partnerships - they cover undergraduate to graduate level, reflect many class sizes, have varying degrees of community engagement, and are from a variety of disciplines. Whether you are curious about how instructors integrate CETL into their courses, what community engagement can look like, how to manage student experience and expectations, or anything else CETL-related, our hope is that you find the Database to be a valuable tool. Lindsey Thomson, CETL Manager at CESI, adds that "The CETL Database fills a gap in online resources for curriculum-based community engagement at U of G by providing access to a range of ground-level examples of how instructors, students, and community partners are collaborating through community engaged teaching and learning. I am so excited to be able to share this resource at U of G and beyond. Our goal is to keep adding to the database to showcase CETL at U of G and to support important knowledge mobilizatiom among course instructors and CES scholars to learn from and build upon the great work that is already happening."
The Database is made of up individual records for each featured course, with a brief summary of the CETL component. When clicked to expand, each record displays more detailed information such as course descriptions, the names of instructors, the number and level of students, the level of community engagement, a list of community partners, and resources. Available resources vary by course, but include course syllabi and outlines, assignment instructions, rubrics and assessment tools, and sample work from real students. All resources are fully accessible, downloadable, and free to be shared and adapted with appropriate attribution.
This beta version of the Database includes records and resources from a selection of 13 courses, most of which were offered in 2017 and 2018. This is a small sample of courses with a CETL component offered at U of G; many of these courses have continued to be offered in subsequent semesters, and there are many courses which are not yet featured in the Database. We look forward to updating the Database with new resources and more courses in the months and years ahead.
If you have any questions about the Database, please contact Kendra Schnarr, CESI Research Project Assistant.