Effects of experiential service learning in improving community engagement perception, sustainability awareness, and data analytics competency

This study examines if and how incorporating an experiential service learning intervention within an accounting course, beyond the traditional lecture, could impact students’ community engagement perception, sustainability awareness, as well as their data analytics competency. We conduct a quasi-experimental investigation with a group of 103 accounting students from a large public U.S. university. Results show that, in comparison to a group with only lecture intervention, students exhibited improved community engagement perception, sustainability awareness, and data analytics competency in both Tableau and Power BI, following the lecture plus experiential service learning intervention. Using Kolb’s four-stage experiential learning cycle as the underlying conceptual framework, further analyses of the feedback from both students and host partners illuminate the ways in which experiential service learning has helped to impact learning. Our findings suggest the value relevance of leveraging experiential service learning within an accounting course toward improving students’ development in areas outside the core curriculum. Results of this study could be of interest to accounting educators as they contemplate the efficacies of incorporating experiential-based service learning projects to elevate students’ proficiencies in the increasingly important areas of sustainability, civic awareness and data analytics.