Peer-centered service learning

We believe that improved learning by the undergraduate computer science major is intrinsically linked with improving student engagement. We have developed a framework aimed at encouraging student engagement. Most of the individual ideas are not especially innovative. However, we think others will be interested in how we have integrated them and made them a visible and central part of our undergraduate educational experience. We focus on three particular areas identified as critical for improving student engagement: student-faculty interaction, active and collaborative learning, and experiences outside the classroom. It requires that students take on roles that either previously did not exist or were the sole province of the faculty. The key to this approach is the integration of two techniques that others have identified: peer learning and service learning. Because the service learning is centered on the peer of the student providing the service we use the term peer-centered service learning.