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As a first implementation of the Savola Service Learning Initiative, the Group partnered with women’s Computer Science Department at King AbdulAziz University.
The KAU CS Department and The Savola Group setup a
framework through which the Group would support the service learning
initiative.
Both parties agreed that any enrolled student in the CS 483 course
can voluntarily choose Savola as their web site client for their
course project and that the web site requirements set by Savola,
should directly relate to the material being taught while at the
same time benefiting the Savola Group or any community entity
Savola recommends. In successful service-learning the service
experience should be related to classroom concepts and should
focus on learning and not on service.
The Savola Group as part of its contract with the CS Department
provides the course instructor a generous agreed-upon monetary
grant every semester to be used to improve the CS 483 course for
subsequent semesters. The Group also contracts the course
instructor as a part time consultant to oversee the projects and
provides a grant to hire an administrative assistant to help the
instructor. Research reports lack of resources and lack of faculty
reward as barriers to service-learning. With this type of
support The Savola Group encourages faculty members to
actively participate in service-learning.
The Group also assigns a female coordinator who works for the
Group as a point of contact for the students whose culture would
prohibit them from working with male clients and to help answer
all students’ questions.
The students will work in groups of two-six members each,
depending on the scope of the site. The groups will compete
together while building the sites. The members will be required to
go through a complete development life cycle from the stages of
gathering user requirements to the stage of implementation and
user testing.
The instructor of the course will oversee the complete life cycle
and supervise the quality of the product. At the end of the
semester, all participating students will receive an award of
recognition in the form of a diploma. However, 2 groups will be
selected to receive 1st and 2nd place awards in the form of
plaques, and monetary awards for all their members. All other
groups, no matter how many, who submit sites that will actually
be used by Savola or a community entity will qualify for 3rd
place awards. Each 3rd place member will also receive a plaque
and a smaller monetary award.
Evaluation criteria: Evaluation of the different projects will be
based on the judgment of the course instructor and whether or not
the web site served its intended goal as reported by the evaluation
of Savola members.
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