BEYOND THE BOOKS

A FRAMEWORK FOR COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE LEARNING COURSES IN APPLIED HEALTH RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

 
"What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing."

- Aristotle

The idea that some of the greatest learning happens outside the classroom is not new. What is quite pioneering, however, is harnessing this concept to develop a course which provides students hands-on research training and experience -- while earning credits and collaborating with the community.

In September 2007, University of Victoria piloted the course GS500: Practicum in Applied Health Research and Knowledge Transfer. Co-funded by the university, the Vancouver Island Health Authority and the BC Child and Youth Health Research Network, the course matched up graduate students with research questions from VIHA practitioners.

Students then spent the semester addressing the research need and developing a solution, working directly with end users of research in the field.

The course was a huge success, was repeated in 2008 and became the source of inspiration for two more community-based service courses at UVic.

This website is designed to share the inspiration with a greater audience, helping administrators and researchers at other post-secondary institutions design and launch similarly-formatted community-based service learning courses in applied health research and knowledge transfer.

We'll show you how we did it, why it works and how you can replicate our success. Begin exploring by clicking on the links to the left.