Abstract
As artificial intelligence has become an integral part of daily life, universities face a fundamental question: what human capabilities should higher education intentionally cultivate?
While community-engaged learning is not new, it offers a response that is perhaps more relevant than ever. By bringing students into sustained engagement with communities, real-world contexts and diverse stakeholders, it creates opportunities for students to encounter different perspectives, navigate complexity, and engage with the lived experiences of others.
Drawing on the experience of a large-scale compulsory community-engaged learning course involving more than 1,000 students and over 90 community partners annually, this presentation examines how reciprocal university-community partnerships can be sustained at scale while preserving authentic human engagement. It argues that the value of community-engaged learning in the age of AI lies not only in what students do, but in who they are invited to become through meaningful relationships with others.
The session will share lessons on designing reciprocal partnerships that support student learning, community priorities and long-term relationship-building, while exploring the continuing role of community engagement in developing the human capacities that remain critical in an increasingly AI-enabled future.
Learning objectives
- Examine the role of community-engaged learning as a context for developing human capacities that are more critical than ever in an increasingly AI-enabled world.
- Explore how reciprocal university-community partnerships create opportunities for students to engage with diverse perspectives, lived experiences and real-world complexity.
- Identify principles for sustaining authentic and mutually beneficial community partnerships at scale.
- Consider how community engagement can complement technological advancement by strengthening students’ engagement with human and social dimensions of complex issues.
- Reflect on the continuing value of relational and community-based learning within higher education.
Target audience
Educators, curriculum leaders, community engagement practitioners, partnership managers, student experience professionals and international education colleagues interested in human-centred learning, reciprocal partnerships, graduate development, and the evolving role of higher education in an increasingly AI-enabled world.
