Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Stan Hannah
Committee Member
Phyllis M. Olmstead
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic affairs, citizenship education, civic development, community engagement, community service, community service learning, criminal justice, curriculum development, development problem-solving methodology, distance education, evaluation, evaluation criteria, formative committees, higher education, Humanities and Social Sciences, implementation, learning communities, literature reviews, online courses, online learning, program development, provosts, public universities, school community programs, school community relationship, service learning, student participation, student volunteers, summative committees, University of Houston-Downtown, vice presidents
Abstract
University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) is a public undergraduate university committed to civic development and providing relevant learning experiences to students. Due to this commitment, the president of UHD joined Campus Compact, a national coalition committed to the civic development of students and to creating a supportive campus environment for the engagement in community service. The purpose of this project was to develop service learning in an online-learning community for criminal justice curriculum at UHD with a plan for implementation and evaluation.
There were four research questions for this project. First, “What is the appropriate design and content for service learning in criminal justice?” Second, “What are the appropriate implementation procedures for incorporating service learning into criminal justice?” Third, “What are the appropriate criteria for evaluating service learning in criminal justice?” Fourth, “What is the appropriate plan for evaluating a service-learning course in criminal justice?”
The project utilized the development problem-solving methodology. The following procedures served to facilitate this developmental project. First, a review of the literature was conducted. Second, the content and criteria for service learning in criminal justice were established by a formative committee and validated by a summative committee. Third, the appropriate design and content for a service-learning course in criminal justice were developed by the formative committee and approved by the summative committee. Fourth, a draft of the criteria for the service-learning course in criminal justice was written, which included objectives, content, and methods. Fifth, the summative committee reviewed the draft for validation purposes, using the criteria established through the literature review and formative committee input. Sixth, an online course was developed for the plan to implement the community service-learning course. Seventh, a plan for an evaluation of the course was developed. Eighth, the formative committee reviewed the evaluation plan and made revisions as necessary. Ninth, the results of the study were reported to UHD’s vice president of academic affairs and provost and to the dean of Humanities and Social Sciences.