Service Learning Colloquia Speakers

Dr. Shannon O’Brien Wilder

Dr. Shannon O’Brien Wilder is the founding Director of the Office of Service-Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA). Previously, she held positions in the Office of Instructional Support and Development (now Center for Teaching and Learning) and Cooperative Extension in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. As Director of the OSL, Shannon provides campus-wide leadership for academic service-learning course development and assessment of service-learning, and leads efforts to expand UGA's community engagement initiatives, particularly through faculty development programs. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Lamar Dodd School of Art and teaches a graduate seminar on "Art Education in the Community," and a first-year service-learning seminar on community-based art. Shannon was a 2008 Georgia Education Policy Fellow and was the recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Practitioner Award given by the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Art Education and M.Ed. in Instructional Technology, both from the University of Georgia. A Gulf Coast native, she was raised in Houston, Texas and earned a BFA in Studio Art from Baylor University.

Dr. Paul Matthews

Dr. Paul Matthews is the Assistant Director of the University of Georgia Office of Service-Learning. He holds a Ph.D. in language education (University of Georgia) and an M.A. in Latin American Studies (University of Texas at Austin) and was a Fulbright Fellow to the University of Passau (Germany). Paul has been on the faculty at the University of Georgia since 1994, in Romance Languages, Language Education, and as Co-Director of the UGA Center for Latino Achievement & Success in Education. He was a past Service-Learning Fellow and Service-Learning Senior Scholar for Faculty Development; in July 2010 he became Assistant Director of the OSL. In that role, he helps coordinate faculty development, tracks institutional reporting of service-learning and community engagement, conducts research and evaluation, coordinates service-learning initiatives with the Latino community and with K-12 teachers, and teaches service-learning coursework.

 

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in Service-Learning and Experiential Education
What strategies and tools can we use to determine the civic, academic, and personal outcomes and impacts of experiential education and academic service-learning on our students? This presentation showcases recent work at the University of Georgia to assess short- and longer-term impacts of service-learning activities on students across a range of academic subject areas. The presenters will share information on the goals, methods, and instruments used, as well as how these outcomes relate back to meeting institutional student learning goals.

• Powerpoint Presentation

Wilder and Matthews spoke on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, in the Auburn University Student Center.