Lessons in community building and cultural understanding are important aspects of a 21st-century education. Through such lessons, students gain the keys to societal understanding as they gain knowledge about their cultural and historical contexts, and use that understanding as a setting for exploration of deeper values, emotional experiences, and…

The essay briefly outlines the history of community engagement at DePaul University in order to explore how and why universities and colleges are increasingly adopting data collections systems for tracking community engagement. I explore the question of why there is a growing interest in tracking engagement within the academy and suggest that…

Online environments can cultivate what have been referred to as 21st century skills and capabilities, as youth contribute, pursue, share, and interact around work and ideas. Such environments also hold great potential for addressing digital divides related to the development of such skills by connecting youth in areas with fewer resources and…

Often, research projects are presented as final products with the methodologies cleanly outlined and little attention paid to the decision-making processes that led to the chosen approach. Limited attention paid to these decision-making processes perpetuates a sense of mystery about qualitative approaches, particularly for new researchers who will…

This study examined community leadership education programs employed in rural communities and organizations of several states to empower both local leaders and residents. In particular, the study investigated the relationships between community leadership education program design and structure (contact hours and content) and six outcome indices of…

This paper offers an insight into the development, use and governance of e-repositories for learning and teaching, illustrated by Eric Raymond's bazaar and cathedral analogies and by a comparison of collection strategies that focus on content coverage or on the needs of users. It addresses in particular the processes that encourage and achieve…

Increasingly, government, foundations, and others are asking community-based organizations for more evaluation information. Although the demand for this information may be increasing, the field knows very little about the way organizations are responding to this demand. Using data collected from interviews and a mail survey of community-based…

This paper examines the potential for sample bias if the number of followup mailings in a survey is reduced. The results indicate that initial respondents differ from laggard respondents on five demographic characteristics, but differences diminish between early and late laggard respondents. Multiple mailings are necessary to improve the quality…

Describes the Community Concerns Report method for identifying local strengths, problems, and ideas for improving conditions. Presents an alternative to needs assessment and community survey techniques. (JOW)

A practical and organized approach to economic development of a local community is proposed. Suggested data bank components are included. (MS)

In this article, some of the constraints to the design of a feasible integrated, rural community development project in an isolated Third World setting are considered. Constraints to data gathering are considered in terms of reliability, validity, and multidisciplinary team work. (Author/CT)

Although the private sector has the primary role for job generation in the U.S. market economy, local community leaders can play a significant part in creating a growth-stimulating economic environment. A comprehensive economic development strategy appropriate to a community's specific goals and conditions requires careful analysis of the…

This document presents a method, developed by the Institute for Child Advocacy [ICA], (a community based project which seeks to upgrade the quality of children's services in South Central Los Angeles) of using problem solving with community residents and agencies. This method of problem solving, previously used in a study of children being…

This report describes s a study that examined how seven groups in Edmonton, Alberta, used a community development model called Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping. The first three sections discuss the model's development and purpose and the methodology used to examine its application in community planning. Presented next are the results…

The fluctuating effects of media can be observed by a data collection technique which reveals patterns of audience response similar to those which C.G. Jung observed in his analyses on word association and dreaming. The technique is known as Continuous Response Movement (CRM). A typical CRM training session automates the audience feedback process…