Community Engaged Courses at OHIO
Connecting learning with real-world impact through partnerships that benefit students, faculty, and communities.
Community engaged courses at Ohio University integrate academic learning with meaningful community partnerships. These courses provide students with hands-on, applied experiences while advancing the goals and priorities of community organizations.
As part of OHIO’s commitment to experiential learning and public impact, community engagement is a core strategy for preparing students to contribute as informed, engaged citizens.
Whether you are a student, faculty member, or community partner, there are multiple ways to participate in and benefit from community-engaged teaching and learning.
How You Can Engage
Community-engaged courses create opportunities for students, faculty, and community partners to collaborate in meaningful ways.
Faculty & Instructors
Faculty can integrate community engagement into their teaching through project-based learning, sustained community partnerships, and applied learning experiences connected to course goals.
The Center for Community Impact and Office of Experiential Learning provide support for community-engaged course development, partnership building, project matching, and designation processes.
Community Partners
Community organizations and partners can collaborate with faculty and students on projects, research, and other course-based initiatives that align with community-identified priorities and needs.
Partnership opportunities may include long-term collaborations, guest engagement in courses, or project-based opportunities connected to student learning.
- Join the OHIO Community Experts Directory
- Browse project request listing
Students
Students can participate in community-engaged courses across disciplines that connect classroom learning with real-world experience. These opportunities may include applied projects, collaborative community work, research, and other experiential learning activities.
Community-engaged courses help students build professional skills, strengthen civic learning, and explore issues affecting communities locally and beyond.
What Is a Community-Engaged Course?
Curricular community engagement is a high impact experiential learning practice that integrates academic learning with meaningful collaboration beyond the classroom. In these courses, students apply what they are learning to real-world contexts by working with community partners on projects, research, or initiatives that address community-identified needs.
Unlike traditional coursework, community-engaged courses emphasize reciprocal partnerships—meaning that both student learning and community impact are central to the experience. These courses go beyond volunteering by intentionally connecting course objectives with applied work in the community.
Community-engaged courses can take different forms depending on the goals of the course and the needs of community partners.
What This Looks Like in Practice
- A marketing class developing outreach strategies for a local nonprofit
- A public health course analyzing data for a community health initiative
- An engineering capstone partnering on sustainability projects
- A research course working with community organizations to study local issues
- Learn more about course designations
Community Engagement in Action: Featured Courses
Across disciplines, community-engaged courses connect students, faculty, and partners through meaningful, real-world work.
ECON 3010C: Economics of Altruism
SASM 4130: the Business of Baseball
SOC 3090C: Sociology of Appalachia
Ready to Learn More?
Whether you are interested in teaching, learning, or partnering through community-engaged courses, the Center for Community Impact can help connect you with opportunities and resources.