Factors leading to sustainable social impact on the affected communities of engineering service learning projects

• Main Authors: Andrew G. Armstrong, Christopher A. Mattson, Randy S. Lewis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-01-01
• Series: Development Engineering
• Subjects: Service learning; Engineering for global development; Humanitarian engineering; Impact assessment; Social sustainability; Best practices
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352728521000087

University engineering programs across the USA engage in service learning projects. These projects involve student teams designing and implementing products or solutions for communities in need, often in developing nations. There has been much research done relating to pedagogy and the impact of these programs on student learning. However, less research has been done on measuring the impact of these programs on the affected communities. This paper examines factors that practitioners believe are related to successfully delivering a desirable and transferable solution to affected communities. The authors identified 49 distinct factors from the literature that implicitly or explicitly are suggested to contribute to successful project outcomes. Formed as postulates in this paper, these 49 factors have been separated into 5 categories to assist understanding and implementing these factors into service learning programs. Lastly, different methods of analyzing and measuring project success and impact are discussed. Future methods for proving the viability of the 49 postulates are discussed as well.