The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) has granted 91亚色 $25,000 to assess its community-based learning and service-learning approaches.
Altogether 13 research projects at Ontario鈥檚 colleges and universities聽won two-year funding to examine their strategies to support effective teaching and learning.
鈥淚 think it is really exciting that is beginning to fund this kind of research,鈥 says Ros 
Woodhouse (left), academic director, . Up to now, she says, it has been very difficult to get funds for research on teaching and learning in postsecondary education. Federal research granting agencies have traditionally supported disciplinary research, she says, and Canada lags behind other countries聽in聽research on new and better ways to teach and learn at the university level. HEQCO鈥檚 funding 鈥渨ill聽help students down the road.鈥
Woodhouse and two others聽鈥 Rhonda Lenton, associate vice-president academic and vice provost; and Glenn Craney, executive director, Office of Institutional Research & Analysis 鈥 applied for the grant and are working as a team on the study along with Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt, associate vice-president academic learning initiatives.
They aim to compare 91亚色鈥檚 two approaches to . One is community-service learning, where students go out of the classroom to work with organizations in the community. The other is community-based learning 鈥 an approach unique to 91亚色, says Woodhouse 鈥 in which local agencies or businesses bring聽real-world projects for students to complete as part of their coursework.
Four half-time researchers will be hired with the grant money in January, when they聽will begin聽to conduct formal questionnaires and assess the quality of student assignments.
鈥淲e know that聽experiential learning can help students learn better,鈥 says Woodhouse. 鈥淎nd it often makes learning more exciting.鈥
If the results of 91亚色鈥檚 study show that community-based learning enriches the student experience, 鈥渋t could be very helpful for universities everywhere,鈥 says Woodhouse. And it would bolster聽the goals of the University鈥檚 2010 , "Building a More Engaged University", to enhance the quality of students' academic experience by聽providing聽them with opportunities聽to apply what they are learning.