Spend ten minutes researching this question and you'll find a dizzying array of answers. Why is that? Part of the issue is differentiating CBL from other similar types of learning, such as service-learning and experiential learning. Our Community-Based Learning Initiative sees community-based learning as an umbrella term that encompasses more narrowly defined types of learning, but as you'll see from the links below, there are many different ways to answer this question. There are similarities, though: all definitions share a common interest in learning in and with a local community, enhancing course subject matter through hands-on experience, teaching skills in critical thinking and reflection, and developing in the student a sense of civic responsibility.
Academic Service-Learning (by Lisa Moulds, Director of the Center for Service-Learning at Western Washington University)
Service Learning: Learning by Doing and Doing What Matters (Kathryn Tanner, Montana State University Bozeman)