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BENNION | MENU OF CIVICS PROJECTS 

A Menu-Based Approach to Civic Skill
Development and Community Engagement
in Courses Across Levels, Modes,
and Disciplines
Elizabeth A. Bennion
Chancellor’s Professor of Political Science and Director of Community Engagement 
Indiana University South Bend

16

PAPER 4

 Developing this generation's civic skills is 
vital to maintaining and strengthening the foundation 
of democracy. There is an urgent need to improve 
civic education and promote civic literacy, 
knowledge, and engagement among today's college 
students. This is something faculty can promote 
across the disciplines. 

 Meanwhile, higher education institutions are 
under rising pressure to increase the number and 
variety of online courses. Accelerated by the 
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the issues of 
enrollment declines, budget cuts, financial pressures, 
and market demand are bolstering online course 
offerings at campuses across the country (Hall 2023). 
What does this mean for civic literacy and skill 
development? Can civic literacy, skills, and 
engagement be promoted in 100% online courses? 
And how can face-to-face and online courses 
incorporate civic skills training without sacrificing 
necessary class time or content required by 
departments or accrediting bodies? Is there a quick 
and easy way to introduce students in all disciplines 
and course levels to the core civic skills they will 
require after graduation? 

I argue that the answer is yes!

 This brief essay explains how a menu-based 
approach to civic literacy offers opportunities for 
student civic engagement in their communities – and 
from the convenience of their homes.

 While community-based learning advocates 
recognize the many advantages of well-designed, 
reciprocal, long-term partnerships that benefit student 
learners and community partners, there is some 
evidence that online learning can facilitate, rather 
than inhibit, community-engaged pedagogies 
(Guthrie & McCracken, 2012; Purcell, 2017). Indeed, 
one study concluded that "e-service-learning—the 
marriage of online learning and service-
learning—holds the potential to transform both 
endeavors by freeing service-learning from 
geographical constraints and by equipping online 
learning with a tool to promote engagement" 
(Waldner et al., 2012, p. 145). 

 I offer such an approach to students taking 
political science courses at IU South Bend. It is an 
approach that can be used in other courses across the 
disciplines with students across the state and nation.
I adopted and adapted a model pioneered by political 
scientist Judithanne McLauchlan (McLauchlan 2019) 
to include more online-only assignment options 
during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue 
incorporating both online and in-person civic action 
projects in my courses.

 In addition to audio/video lectures, readings, 
films, and multimedia materials reinforced through 
worksheets, quizzes, and discussion forums, I also 
require a series of hands-on civic engagement 
activities for all students.



  Students can deepen their understanding of 
American government, politics, and political culture 
by completing a series of civics assignments and 
writing short reflection papers. In these papers, 
students describe what they did for their project, and 
what they learned about politics, the community, and 
themselves, as well as how the project may influence 
their future behavior. The reports can be very brief 
(1-4 pages) and can require students to relate what 
they learned from the experience to the material 
covered in lectures and in the assigned readings. An 
instructor may also require that students participate 
in discussion boards using the campus learning 
management system (e.g., Canvas) to post about their 
civics projects and respond to others. Students can be 
asked to complete several projects based on course 
learning objectives and available time. 

 The "menu" of potential civics projects 
includes activities such as attending a city council, 
school board, or county commission meeting; 
attending a homeowner's association meeting; 
volunteering for a community agency; visiting a 
federal or state courthouse and watching the 
proceedings; volunteering for a political campaign; 
and contacting an elected official about an issue of 
interest. Students verify their completion of the civics 
projects by including an appendix with photos of 
them at the events and/or scans of business cards, 
meeting agendas, or other artifacts of the civic 
engagement activity. 

 Online activities can be verified through 
screenshots, abbreviated transcripts, timestamps, and 
email messages from (or contact information for) 
interview subjects and volunteer coordinators. 
Specific post-activity assignment requirements also 
help to assure students that all members of the class 
are doing the work.

 During ordinary semesters, my primary goal 
is to get people out from behind their keyboards and 
computer screens and out into their communities – 
and to introduce students to opportunities for 
engagement available to them after graduation. For 
this reason, no two assignments can be of the same 
type (e.g., only one city council meeting), and, prior 
to the Spring 2020 semester, only one of the civics 
projects could be "online" (e.g., watching an Indiana 
Supreme Court oral argument online or watching a 
Sunday morning political TV show). However, the 
requirements are easy to adapt to specific CDC 
guidelines for social distancing or individual students 
needs or limitations related to childcare, 
transportation, medical challenges, or other factors.

 Even when a public health crisis, or other 
circumstance, has confined students to their homes, 
students can analyze a political talk show, comment 
on a federal rule change, write a letter to the editor, 
or conduct a Zoom interview with an elected official. 
They can make phone calls for a political campaign, 
watch a local government meeting online, or listen to 
an oral argument in front of their state's Supreme 
Court. These are just a few of the ways that students 
can observe, analyze, and engage in politics in action. 
See my online list of Citizen Action Project COVID-
19 Adaptations  for a more comprehensive listing  here
of examples.

 Such projects expand students' understanding 
of the political world around them and their vision of 
how they can participate in representative democracy 
now and in the future. At a time of democratic 
backsliding characterized by political polarization, 
negative partisanship, disinformation, and high

17

PAPER 4

At a time of democratic backsliding 
characterized by political 

polarization, negative partisanship, 
disinformation, and high levels of 

distrust in government (and fellow 
citizens), helping students to 

understand that they can become 
informed political actors who engage 

in ways that benefit their local 
community is critical.

BENNION | MENU OF CIVICS PROJECTS 

https://politicalsciencenow.com/civic-action-projects-for-your-100-online-covid-19-adapted-courses/


levels of distrust in government (and fellow citizens), 
helping students to understand that they can become 
informed political actors who engage in ways that 
benefit their local community is critical.

 Over the years, my students have written to 
their U.S. senator and representative, governor, state 
legislators, commented on federal rule changes, 
submitted op eds to their local newspapers, analyzed 
the oral arguments of court cases of special interest. 
They have attended school board, city council, and 
county council meetings and volunteered for service 
agencies and political campaigns – often bringing 
family members with them generating new and 
important conversations in the household. Some have 
even joined their local homeowners or neighborhood 
associations, and run for leadership posts in these 
organizations, after attending for the first time for 
class credit. Students sometimes fall short in 
analyzing an oral argument or following the correct 
procedure to submit a letter to the editor, but these 
are teachable moments, allowing opportunities for 
detailed feedback and project revisions. Such cases 
are quickly overshadowed by students who become 
politically active after meeting with a local party 
chair or add a journalism minor after interviewing a 
political journalist or watching a taping of the weekly 
public affairs TV program I host for a local PBS 
affiliate. 

 Now that the pandemic is over, opportunities 
for face-to-face engagement abound, limited only by 
the imagination of the instructors and students 
dreaming up new ways to practice civic skills by 
connecting classroom learning to meaningful 
experiences online and in the community beyond our 
computer screens. Individual professors can adapt 
assignments to focus on topics and skills of high 
relevance for specific classes and disciplines and 
determine the appropriate number of projects and 
ratio of online versus community-based activities. 

 Available time, resources, training 
requirements, partnerships, course level, and learning 
goals will influence the menu options and course 

 requirements, but instructors and students need not 
invest an entire semester to become acquainted with 
– and practice – important civic activities that will 
benefit them, and the broader society, as they 
continue to use these skills – and develop new skills 
– as they practice political, civic, and community 
engagement over time.

References

Bennion, E.A. (2020). Civic Action Project for Your 
100% Online (COVID-19 ADAPTED) Courses. 
Political Science Now,  Growing Online Student 
Population. 16.

Guthrie, K., & McCracken, H. (2010). Teaching and 
learning social justice through online service-
learning courses. International Review of Research 
in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3), 78-94.

Hall, E. Online and Hybrid Learning Are 
Increasingly Popular. Now Colleges Have to Keep 
Up. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 15, 
2023. 

McLauchlan, J. (2019). Civic Engagement in the 
Online Classroom: Increasing Youth Political 
Engagement in an Online American Government 
Course. E-Journal of Public Affairs, accessed May 
15, 2024, 
https://www.ejournalofpublicaffairs.org/civic-
engagement-in-the-online-classroom-increasing-
youth-political-engagement-in-an-online-american-
government-course/.

Purcell, J. (2017). Community-engaged pedagogy in 
the virtual classroom: Integrating eservice-learning 
into online leadership education. Journal of 
Leadership Studies, 11(1), 65-70.

Waldner, L. & Widener, M. & Mcgorry, S. (2012). 
E-Service Learning: The Evolution of Service-
Learning to Engage a Growing Online Student 
Population. 16.

PAPER 4

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BENNION | MENU OF CIVICS PROJECTS 


