Impact of Spanish Community Service Learning

by Ann Abbott


Do you have to hand in an end-of-the-year activities report? Do you hate doing it? Does it feel like bean counting?


I know the feeling. But looking at the numbers can actually be helpful. Your community partners have to do this kind of reporting all the time when they apply for and report back on grants and within their internal and external communications.


There are many ways to measure activity, importance and impact. Numbers do not tell the whole story. But they are one piece of the puzzle. And here are my numbers regarding teaching and program coordination for academic year 2010-11. (OJO: the numbers represent available spaces in the courses I teach/coordinate; I did not count actual enrollments in each and every section. Hence the phrase, "up to.")
  • 5 courses taught/coordinated 
    • SPAN 202 Business Spanish
    • SPAN 208 Oral Spanish
    • SPAN 228 Spanish Composition
    • SPAN 232 Spanish in the Community
    • SPAN 332 Spanish & Entrepreneurship
  • 725 (up to) students in all five courses
  • 13 TAs (up to) per semester teaching these courses
  • 12 community partners
  • 165 (up to) students in a CSL course
  • 37 honors projects (language-learning social networking sites and student reflection blog posts here)
What are your numbers for this year? What other "data" do you think tells the story your course or program's impact? How do you measure quality versus quantity? Leave a comment to let us know!

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