What Impacts the Learning in Service Learning? An Examination of Project Structure and Student Characteristics

This paper examines what factors influence how effective a service learning project is at achieving learning objectives. It is based on data collected from seven MPA courses taught during one semester at a large state university. We find that the key factors influencing the effectiveness of a service learning project at achieving learning objectives are the extent the project is integrated with class materials, whether students work in groups, and whether the students participating are full-time students